05/01/2017: Lecture 7 - KASHMIR ISSUE (3)

The Insurgency
Speaking of the period of Insurgency, it was evident that fighters had been moved from
Pakistani territory very close to the Afghan provinces all the way to Kashmir. The Pakistani
government however denied any hand in the same and said that these were unsatisfied
locals creating a ruckus. 2 months after independence, 26/October/1947 is when Hari Singh
signed the accession to India. The concept of an Indian government was introduced in
Kashmir via Sheikh Abdullah who from the interim governor is supposed to become the PM
of Kashmir. The GOI feels that troops when rushed into Sri Nagar will flush out all the
militants and will occupy even POK.

There were multiple phases of the insurgency, some which saw the presence of the
infiltrators in certain towns, and other in other areas. There were so many fighters that even
the Indian army could not take them on fully. The armed forces diverted their position
depending upon from where they saw waves of attacks coming. The wave of attackers
however, were not very organized and did not have good battle field tactics. They were not
trained fighters, they were basically rebels. Also, the army support they were getting was
from the Pakistani army which till 2 months ago was the Indian army. Hence, the guidance
they may be getting was from this source. This goes on till Feb 1948 – and it becomes clear
that the fight isn’t going to be easy and that the battle is long drawn. The militants are
trying to gain Akhnur. The road that went to Akhnur was a narrow stretch, and easy to
defend. But people were not concentrating here, because they thought the attack would be
in Sri Nagar. Diversions had to be created again when an attack was felt around Akhnur. The
Indian forces were having to be diverted time and time again.

The POK sector has drawn itself out, and nobody is even fighting in areas such as Gilgit. The
fight is about Indian Kashmir which the infiltrators have entered. Tensions lead up to May.
The fight becomes about places like kargil, these become deciding factors. Kargil was
captured almost entirely by the infiltrators at one point of time.

Class Question: The Indian army was obviously bigger in strength then how was it not being
able to tackle this insurgency?

Answer: The forces that went to Pakistan were the main fighter regions of the North West –
Punjab, Sindh etc. Their forces were the main fighters even when they were a part of the
Indian regiment. On the other hand, Indian forces were from other states which were
largely agrarian. Hence, yes the infiltrators did have an upper hand.
1999 Kargil Struggle

There are certain key cities which became very important during the Kargil struggle such as
the city of Dras. It is the second coldest place in all of Asia. The Zojila pass in this region is
the narrowest pass and if this gets captured then everything else stops. India is defending
this pass very well because they cannot afford to lose it. The only way to defend this is using
tanks. However this is very risky because if the tank gets stuck then all your own forces get
paralysed as well. The idea is to make the insurgents feel taken aback when they see these
tanks. The insurgents obviously did not expect this, at this altitude, this temperature. Hence,
the Indian forces were able to tactfully take Kargil and Dras back by liberating this pass. By
December – this is what stares India in the face.

Class Question/Doubt: If these countries were actually newly formed, how were the being
able to bare the economic cost of war?

Answer: War actually is very lucrative business for a country’s economy. Capturing territory
is actually going to get you much more than what you are spending on getting it.

The UN Ceasefire
December 31 – 1949 is the last day of the war as the UN calls for a ceasefire. At this point of
time this works for everybody. Pakistan realizes that the insurgents can never really capture
all of Kashmir because there are too few of them. They are happy to have created
disturbance in the region. Their best hope is that if the UN takes this up they will ask India to
step down by delegitimizing Hari Singh’s accession. The problem then is, who are the
members who will settle this issue? Kashmir, India and Pakistan?

UN high command tells Liyakat Ali Khan to stop the attacks because the insurgency did not
stop even after the declaration of ceasefire. He conveniently says we don’t have any men of
ours in the region. The UN then says – a UN peace keeping mission will be sent if this
insurgency does not stop. The insurgents do stop. Hence, the ceasefire is finally maintained.
The question now is, if the Hari Singh accession was not justified because none of the
people of Kashmir were asked, in that case – a plebiscite had to be conducted. It was only
fair, if the plebiscite would be conducted over all of Kashmir. In this case, even POK would
have to vote. But, these people don’t consider anything debatable – they say that they are
Pakistani. Also, all the tribals who had been sent to fight, Paskitan said had nothing to do
with them. Now that it came for voted being counted, they began agreeing to the fact that
these tribals had been sent by the PAK govt. 12,000 Pakistani irregulars were here, and this
was obviously a huge deal which Pakistan had been trying to hide.
Considering that there were 12,000 PAK irregulars, in order for there to be a peaceful
ceasefire, PAK numbers would have to be cut down to 6000 and India to go down from
30,000 to 21,000. This negotiation itself took 5 years. The UN was trying to solve this issue.
India or Pakistan were not willing to listen, because the person who came in to find a
solution was a Britisher. Then a decision is taken that there will ONLY BE UN peacekeeping
forces there, no India no Pakistan so that the plebiscite can happen. Then a Canadian
general is brought in. Till 1953 – proposals and agreements keep happening. By the end of
it, this status quo was so established that it became immovable. The plebiscite slowly
started going out of question. After a point, China also bought a part of POK. The whole
situation kept getting more and more complicated. This essentially became the LOC and
status quo remains with frequent tensions.

VIDEO [Text – what sir says, Photo – Video transcription]

In Pakistan, the generation which lived through partition, after that generation all
subsequent ones studied a changed school curriculum. Pakistan was born on an Islamic
identity, hence they don’t mention any other empire at all. However, the Indian continent
has had Islam since much before. But – Pakistani students are taught since a really early age
that they have descended from Taimur and Babur. They have named their missiles after
them as well. Hence every child starts growing up with the idea that their ancestors invaded
India. they don’t realize that they were a part of india and were attacked by Taimur, and
were on the victim side, not on the attacker side. They are taught that they were the
attackers, and they attacked India. They are not taught that these people – Taimur etc also
brought down their own cities to nothing. They are taught that Pakistan isn’t what they ot, it
is what they were left with. They are taught to be the descendents of the Mughals.

In 1965 aggression, Pakistani troops came into occupied Kashmir which is Indian Kashmir.
Throughout the world it is known as occupied Kashmir. However POK is now Pakistan. India
reacted by attacking Pakistan in Punjab and almost captured Lahore. Our forces crossed the
Radcliffe line, and it was declared as war. However, Pakistan moving into Indian Kashmir is
them moving into a disturbed area – because this is still not considered India.