KASHMIR: A PARADISE LOST!
Yes, Kashmir is a Paradise Lost for Pakistan. Pakistan lost opportunities to reclaim the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir not once, not twice, but three times at different occasion from 1947 to 1999.
First, the all-out invasion of Kashmir that started on 22 October 1947 by the raiders' column, consisting of two to three hundred lorries full of frontier tribesmen of about five thousand—Afridis, Wazirs, Mahsuds, Swathis, and soldiers of the Pakistan Army 'on leave'—advanced from Abbottabad in the NWFP along the Jhelum Valley Road was lost. The raiders marched towards Baramula along the road leading to Srinagar; continued their advance and captured the Mathura Power House, and plunged Srinagar in darkness. They paused here without valid reasons, resulting in losing the prime opportunity of taking the Valley of Kashmir and Srinagar (Encyclopedia Wikipedia).
"By pausing to sack the convent in the little city of Baramullah, only 30 miles from Srinagar, when they should have been driving on the capital of Kashmir and its vital airfield, the Pathan raiders would stop here. All day on Monday, 27 October, while the First Sikhs secured their fragile hold on Kashmir's only airport, the Pathans in Baramullah were giving vent to their ancient appetites for rape and pillage of the Convent of Mary. They violated the nuns, massacred the patients in their little clinic, looted the convent chapel down to its last brass door-knob… They had given the soldiers of Jawaharlal Nehru the critical hours they needed to istall themselves in the Vale of Kashmir." Says Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins in their "Freedom at Midnight", published New Delhi, 1997, page 449.
"On the evening of 24 Oct. the Government of India had received a desperate appeal for help from the Maharajah. On Oct. 25 a meeting of the Defense Committee of Govt. of India was held, presided by Lord Mountbatten. India hurriedly airlifted their soldiers and fighting hardware to Srinagar airport consequent upon signing the Instrument of Accession to the Indian Union on 26 Oct. 1947. The Indian army suppressed the inroads of invading Pathans.
Second, Communist China had never accepted the British-negotiated boundary agreements in north-eastern Kashmir. After Chinese authority was established in Tibet and reasserted in Xinjiang, Chinese forces penetrated into the northeastern parts of Ladakh. By 1956–57 they had completed a military road through the Aksai-Chin area to provide better communication between Xinjiang and western Tibet. India's belated discovery of this road led to border clashes between the two countries that culminated in the Sino-Indian war of October 1962. China has occupied the northeastern part of Ladakh since the conflict. (Encyclopedia Britannica).
Qudratullah Shahab describes in detail the story of the Sino-Indian war in his celebrated book, "Shahab Nama" published in Urdu at Lahore,1987-1989 editions (pp. 917-919). Following is the English translation, done by the author of this article:
"It was probably the night of 20th of Oct. 1962 that I was sleeping in my home at Harley Street Rawalpindi. Unexpectedly, I heard sound of a car entering my home compound at about 2.30 AM in the night. My home servant informed me that a Chinese man wanted to see me then and there. The Chinese had visited Pakistan to learn Urdu language and I had seen him before at many occasions. He told me that India's persistent attacks on Chinese borders had compelled China to repel Indian attacks. Chinese troops had been advancing inside Indian borders in its retaliatory attacks. He had come at this odd hour just to inform me. I asked him "Did you inform this to our External Affairs?" He smiled and said, "We think President Ayub might find some interest and importance in this news, and we think that you might be the right source for conveying this information to him. That's why I wake you up at this odd hour. This is my personal initiative. This is not a message from Foreign office."
Mr. Shahab further writes in his memoire, "I think by waking me up at mid-night the Chinese was conveying his message that while the Indian forces are in panic and leaving their posts retreating, this is utmost important for Pakistan to avail this chance without losing this precious opportunity.
"I hurriedly changed my dresses, took my car and reached at President House. It was about 3.00 AM when I got access to President Ayub's bedroom. I informed him all of my talks with the Chinese. Instantly, the President told me, "This is not an unexpected news, but what's the objective of the Chinese to let us know this news at this hour of the night? I told him that the Chinese objectives of informing us about this battle could not be else than Pakistan can use this opportunity for its own benefits.
"For example?" the President asked me. I explained him that if our forces are made to advance into Kashmir through the Chinese occupied border in Ladakh, then ……" President Ayub, abruptly, cut me in the middle of my speech and said, "You civilians think the fighting forces deployment like a child's play. Go and rest. I'm also sleepy."
"I consider even now that President Ayub lost a God-given opportunity of his lifetime and of his presidentship" Shahab expressed his views in his book.
This episode was second time that Pakistan lost the opportunity to reclaim the occupied Jammu and Valley of Kashmir.
Third is the Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict. It was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place at high altitude between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LoC).
Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants had made their positions firm into the Indian side of the LoC, which serves as the de facto border between the two states. They infiltrated the LoC without any chain of support from back. The Indian Army, later on supported by the Indian Air Force, recaptured a majority of the positions on the Indian side of the LoC. With international diplomatic opposition, the Pakistani forces withdrew from the remaining Indian positions along the LoC. Hostilities finally ended when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan gave his assurance that the infiltrators would retreat.
Dear Readers, let's see why the world tolerated the Chinese occupation of a big chunk of mountainous land in Ladakh while it made a hue and cry on occupation of a piece of land in Kargil by Pakistan? Let Pakistan first make its muscle worthy of fighting for justice like China.
ISRAR HASAN
30 APRIL 2015
[email protected]
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