What Is The Kashmir Conflict?--Fast Facts

Kashmir has been hotly contested since August of 1947--even before the independence of India and Pakistan, at the time when Britain was the main imperial power of the Indian subcontinent

• Under the partition plan provided by the Indian Independence Act, Kashmir was free to join either Pakistan or India.

• The Maharaja (regional ruler), Hari Singh--who was apart of the dying Hindu Dogra Dynasty of India--decided to stay on the Union of India side to receive military assistance when the western districts rebelled & a Pakistan-supported tribal invasion occurred.

•  On August 11, 1947--Hari Singh dismissed his prime minister, Ram Chandra Kak, when he advocated for an independent state.

Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-48:

• Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, claimed India acquired the accession through “fraud and violence” when Hari Singh made an urgent plea for extra military assistance from Delhi (Lord Mountbatten’s territory) when the Pakistani tribal invasion occurred. 

• Upon the British’s Lord Mountbatten’s request, Singh had to accede Kashmir to India before Mountbatten would send troops.

• Accordingly, on October 26, 1947, Singh signed the Instrument of Accession. The Government of India stated that the accession would be submitted to a “reference of people” after the state was cleared of its Pakistani-government-supported invaders.

• War raged throughout Kashmir & Jammu in the form of Partition violence. Included in this violence Punjab and Bengal.

• Jammu, the eastern region, had gotten caught up in the Partition violence--a genocide  of Muslims organized by the Hindu Dogra state troops (and Hari Singh) were carried out by the Hindus and Sikhs began in September 1947 and ended in November 1947--at the very least, 70,000 Muslims were murdered while at least 25,000 Hindus and Sikhs were murdered. Many of the Muslims escaped to Western Pakistan.

• UN mediation on January 1, 1948 was able to arrange a truce. Negotiations between India and Pakistan lasted until 1954 but never solved the Kashmir problem. 

• Pakistan controlled part of the Kashmir area, Azad (Free) Kashmir, while India held most of the territory, which it annexed in 1957. 

The Sino-Indian War of 1962:

•  Chinese and Indian military clashed.

• Chinese military quickly over powered the India’s military and occupied the area.

• Claimed the area under administration and naming the region Aksai Chin.

• The border dispute between this area and other smaller areas is known as the Line of Actual Control.

The 1965 & 1971 War:

• April 1965--Fighting broke out in Rann of Kachchh, Western Pakistan. 

•  August 1965-- Fighting spread to Kashmir and Punjab, India.

• September 1965--Pakistani and Indian troops crossed the partition line between the two countries and launched air assaults on each other's cities.

• Threats of intervention by China had been successfully opposed by the United States and Britain.
• Pakistan and India agreed to a UN-sponsored cease-fire and withdrew to the Pre-August lines.

• January 1966-- India and Pakistan signed an agreement pledging continued negotiations and respect for the cease-fire conditions. 

• Civil War erupted in Pakistan, 1971--this pitted East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh) against West Pakistan (present day Pakistan).

• Consumed Eastern half more aggressively--Bangladesh granted independence on December 6, 1971.

• Pakistan lost its eastern half, an army of 100,000 soldiers, and was thrown into political turmoil.

• Under great-power pressure, a UN cease-fire was arranged in mid-December, after Pakistan's defeat.
• This led to the signing of the Simla Agreement:
• Where both countries agreed to settle all issues by peaceful means and mutual discussions within the framework of the UN Charter.   
• Which defined the Line of Control (not to be confused with the Line of Actual Control between India and China) separating Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
• Current construction of a ‘fence’ around the Line of Control has been disputed by both China and Pakistan
• Until the ceasefire in 2003 the Line of Control was one of the most violence-prone de facto borders in the world and saw daily shelling, mortar fire, and machine gun exchanges between Indian and Pakistani troops and other militant groups.
• This was merely a “paper peace” and did not reflect the situation in Kashmir that left the legacy of a deadly 20-year war.

• Zulfikar Ali Bhutto emerged as leader of Pakistan, and Mujibur Rahman as prime minister of Bangladesh. 

Kargil War of 1999:

• The insurgents took advantage of the severe winter conditions and occupied vacant mountain peaks of the Kargil range.

• Insurgents aimed to block the highway--they wanted to cut off the only link between the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh--they succeeded.

• United States entered the complicated regional war by claiming international fears that the conflict could turn nuclear.
• India became a nuclear power in 1974
• Pakistan became a nuclear power in 1998
• USA pressured Pakistan to retreat.

November 26, 2008 - November 29, 2008: 

• 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic militant organisation based in Pakistan, carried out a series of 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai.

• It killed 164 people and wounded at least 308.

• US officials believed that the Inter-Services Intelligence (I.S.I.--Pakistan’s version of the CIA) officers provided support to Lashkar-e-Taiba militants who carried out the attacks.

• Disclosures made by former American intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had intercepted communications between the Lashkar boat and the LeT headquarters in Azad Kashmir and passed the alert on to RAW on November 18, eight days before the terrorists actually struck Mumbai

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The Opposing Views--Summarization:

India:

1. India claims that as the Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession in October 1947, handing control of the Kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir over to India, the region is theirs, having been validated by the Indian Independence Act and the departing British Empire.
2. India claims that the UN Resolution #1172 in 1948 accepted India’s stand regarding all outstanding issues between India and Pakistan.
3. India claims that Pakistan has not removed its military forces, which India views as one of the first steps in implementing a resolution.
4. India has accused Pakistan of spreading anti-India sentiment among the people of Kashmir though the media to alter Kashmiri opinion.
5. India accused Pakistan of funding military groups in the region to create instability, and accuses Pakistan of waging a proxy war.

Pakistan:

1. Pakistan claims that according to the two-nation theory Kashmir should have been with Pakistan, because it has a Muslim majority.
2. Pakistan argues that India has shown disregard to the resolutions of the UN Security Council, and the United Nations Commission in India and Pakistan, by failing to hold a plebiscite.
3. Pakistan rejects Indian claims to Kashmir, centering around the Instrument of Accession. Pakistan insists that the Maharaja did not have the support of most Kashmiris--Pakistan also claims that the Maharaja handed over control of Jammu and Kashmir under illegitimate claims.
4. Pakistan claims that India violated the Standstill Agreement and that Indian troops were already in Kashmir before the Instrument of Accession was signed.
5. Pakistan claims that between 1990-1999 the Indian Armed Forces, its paramilitary groups, and counter-insurgent militias have been responsible for the deaths of 4,501 Kashmiri civilians.   Also from 1990 to 1999, there are records of 4,242 women between the ages of 7-70 that have been raped--similar allegations have been made by some human rights organizations.
6. Pakistan claims that the Kashmiri uprising demonstrates that the people of Kashmir no longer wish to remain part of India.

Kashmiri’s:

1. Region contains supporters of various different solutions to the conflict--there are also those who favor independence for Kashmir:

• 43% of the total adult population want complete independence for Kashmir.
• 1% of Azad Kashmir (Pakistan Kashmir) want to join India--compared to 28% of Jammu and Kashmir (Indian Kashmir).
• 50% of Azad Kashmir want to join Pakistan--compared to 2% in Jammu and Kashmir.
• 14% of the total population want to make the Line of Control a permanent border.

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Kashmir in 2017--Are We Back To Square One?:

• Three people have been killed on either side of divided Kashmir in fresh cross-border shelling--Indian troops last week said they attacked and damaged Pakistani army posts in Kashmir to prevent what they called infiltration by fighters from the Pakistani side, but Pakistan denied the claim.

• The attack in Anantnag’s Qazigund was reported after Pakistan violated the ceasefire on Saturday by firing indiscriminately along the Line of Control (LoC) in Krishna Ghati sector of Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.

• At least 100 Kashmiri students have been wounded during clashes with security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir as anger over a weekend police raid on a college led to protests.

Youth used as a human shield in India-administered Kashmir

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Peace Process?

• The militia group in July 2000 by the Hizb’ul-Mujahideen,  laid a tentative framework for reconciliation. 
• Declared a unilateral ceasefire against the Indian forces.
• Demands also included India declaring Kashmir a disputed territory and that tripartite negotiation should begin immediately--these were not met and the ceasefire collapsed.
• In 2003 another ceasefire was declared along the Line of Control which resulted in five-stage talks between the Indian and Pakistani governments, commencing in 2004. 
• However, the talks once again took a back seat after the 2008 Mumbai attacks--which Pakistan admitted were launched and partly planned from Pakistan.
• April 2012--Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari held the first high-level talks in seven years.
• In 2013--The secret hanging by India of the last surviving member of the militant squad responsible for the Mumbai attacks, and the extremely controversial hanging of the Kashmiri, Muhammed Afzal Guru, convicted by India of an attack on its parliament in 2001--led to widespread protest and a violent crackdown by the Kashmiri government.