At the time of the Partition of India in 1947, the British abandoned their suzerainty over the princely states, which were left with the options of joining India or Pakistan or remaining independent. Hari Singh, the maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, wanted his state to remain independent. In order to buy some time, he signed a stand-still agreement, which sidestepped the encouragement of the princely states to join either India or Pakistan.[5] Later, there was a revolution by Muslims in the western part of the state,[6] as raiders from what was then the North-West Frontier Province and the tribal areas feared that Hari Singh might accede to the Union of India. In October 1947, they attacked Kashmir in an attempt to take control of the princely state. Initially, Hari Singh tried to counter the invasion but failed. He then requested the military assistance of India, which responded that it would not help him unless he acceded to India. On October 26, 1947, Hari Singh signed an Instrument of Accession,[7] and Indian troops were immediately airlifted into Srinagar. Pakistan intervened subsequently.[6] Fighting ensued between the Indian and Pakistani armies, with the two areas of control stabilized, more or less, around what is now known as the Line of Control.[8] Later, India approached the United Nations, asking it to solve the dispute, and resolutions were passed in favor of the holding of a plebiscite with regard to Kashmirs future. However, no such plebiscite has ever been held on either side, since there was a precondition which required the withdrawal of the Pakistani Army along with the non-state elements and the subsequent partial withdrawal of the Indian Army.[9] from the parts of Kashmir under their respective control – a withdrawal that never took place.[10] In 1949, a cease-fire line separating the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir was formally put into effect. Following the 1949 cease-fire agreement, the government of Pakistan divided the northern and western parts of Kashmir which it held into the following two separately-controlled political entities: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) – the narrow, southern part, 250 miles (400 km) long, with a width varying from 10 to 40 miles (16 to 64 km). Gilgit–Baltistan formerly called the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA) – the much larger political entity to the north of AJK with an area of 72,496 square kilometres (27,991 sq mi). It was directly administered by Pakistan as a de facto dependent territory, i.e., a non-self-governing territory. However, it was ostensibly granted full autonomy on August 29, 2009.[11] An area of Kashmir that was once under Pakistani control is the Shaksgam tract, a small region along the northeastern border of Gilgit-Baltistan that was provisionally ceded by Pakistan to the Peoples Republic of China in 1963 and which now forms part of Chinas Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In 1972, the then-current border between the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir was designated as the Line of Control. The Line of Control has remained unchanged[12] since the 1972 Simla Agreement, which bound the two countries to settle their differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations. Some political experts claim that, in view of that pact, the only solution to the issue is mutual negotiation between the two countries without involving a third party such as the United Nations. A devastating earthquake hit Azad Kashmir in 2005.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 10:22:05 +0000
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