What is cooking in Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir, across the LOC?

We are there - the news about Kashmir is either political or a Pak-inspired terrorist incident. Kashmir is also on the other side of the LoC — and the fact that it is geographically as well as politically India's own is so easily forgotten that we often fail to take a look at some of the notable developments in Pak-occupied Kashmir / POK. like,

The Islamabad government of Pakistan is erecting mobile phone towers in Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir, as well as in the so-called Azad Kashmir on a war footing. At first glance, this may not seem strange or worrying, but the matter is serious. Thus: On August 5, 2016, when Article 30 of the Constitution was repealed in Jammu and Kashmir, the Government of India provided adequate mobile service in Kashmir for some time to curb rumors, provocative messages as well as videos, covert conspiracies, etc. in social media. The move was necessary given the circumstances of the time, which, if not taken, would have caused so much chaos in Kashmir that the Indian security forces would have suffocated.

Today, the Pak government is erecting mobile phone towers at a total of nine places near the LoC in Gilgit-Baltistan and the so-called Azad Kashmir. After the construction of this complex, the signals of Pak Telecom Company are to cover the major cities of Kashmir, including Srinagar. If armed terrorists are infiltrating India by encrypting the Line of Control, it is a trivial matter to circulate the SIM card of Pak Telecom Company in Kashmir.

After the Kashmiri people fill up their SIM cards in their phones, their fiber is broken with the telecom service of our country and in case of any crisis in the future (like the abolition of Article 30), the government of Kashmiris on the mobile phones of Kashmiris Do not stay. Pakistan's mobile service will be a boon for the pawns of terrorist organizations moving across the LoC. Their job is to run on ordinary mobiles instead of expensive satellite phones. Don't you think that situation is dangerous for us?

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Also know other news like alarm bells. In Gilgit-Baltistan, the Islamabad government is holding elections on the 1st of next month. For the first time since 19, the province is undergoing a major political upheaval. The election seems to be the political stand of the Islamabad government, behind which the original plan is to make the Gilgit-Baltistan faction, which has been stuck in its teeth for seven decades, the fifth province of Pakistan. Pakistan is a country consisting of four provinces namely Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. All four of them have spitting joints with hardly any bathing suit attached to each other. Now, what difference does it make to add one more thing?

Before discussing this issue it is like getting a brief background on Gilgit-Baltistan.

The province of Gilgit-Baltistan, spread over an area of ​​about 4.5 square kilometers, was part of the Dogra Maharaja Gulab Singh's kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir in the early nineteenth century. The kingdom consisted of five provinces: Gilgit, Baltistan, Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh. During the twentieth century, the white government of British India leased the territory of Gilgit-Baltistan to the then Maharaja Hari Singh (grandson of Gulab Singh) for the establishment of a military camp at Gilgit-Baltistan. Give.

Maharaja Hari Singh canceled the lease agreement with the British on July 15, when Britain, which had been economically fed up with World War II, decided to grant independence to India. He ordered the withdrawal of British troops from Gilgit-Baltistan and sent his military officer, Brigadier Ghansara Singh, to take over the political affairs there. The British troops of Gilgit Scout did not return, on the contrary, Major William Brown, the leader of the detachment, handed over the entire territory to Pakistan. Don't ask who gave him this power, because no one gave it.

In this regard, when Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir made his state in India on October 14, Gilgit-Baltistan became a geographical as well as a political part of the country as it was a part of that state. But after independence, the Pakistani army, led by Major-General Akbar Khan, sent people from hill tribes like Pathan, Afridi, Wazir, Mahmenda and Mehsud to seize arms and attack Kashmir. All these attackers had nothing to do with the Pakistani army. Rather, his main motive was to carry out looting in Kashmir and to keep the looted goods.

On October 6, 19, his mob returned to different parts of Kashmir. The province of Gilgit-Baltistan is no exception. 50,000 people here fell victim to Ghodapur, many houses were demolished and many women were robbed. Thus, the day of October 8 was written in black letters for Gilgit-Baltistan. Even today, locals remember it every year as 'Black Day' and hold public protests against the Pak government as well as the Pak army.

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After this necessary past check, let us now come to the present. After independence, Gilgit-Baltistan was neither regained by India nor merged with Pakistan. Although Pakistan continued to claim the region as its own, it went on for several years without any political leadership. Forget the developers there during this period, even the basic facilities were not built. Radio, telegraph, telephone, post office, etc., benefited the residents of Gilgit-Baltistan as far back as the 150's.

Without a leader in power, the province began to enjoy the political status of an autonomous state. Suffer today, but do not know tomorrow. The current governor named Jalal Hussain Makpool is the constitutional head of the state, while the political administration is handled by Chief Minister Mir Afzal. The state has its own high court as well as the legislature. True to its own separate constitution and monarchy. Bitterness if it has only one relationship with the Islamabad government of Pakistan. One of the reasons for this is that the Shia Muslims here do not stand with the Sunni Muslim people of Pakistan. There have been many incidents of bloody clashes between the two sides. Still happens.

Another reason for the bitterness in the relations is that from the 19th to the first decade of the 21st century, the favor of the Pak rulers did not reach Gilgit-Baltistan. The people here were left to fend for themselves. On the other hand, the Islamabad government occupied gold, precious minerals and emeralds in Gilgit-Baltistan. In short, the policy of the Pak rulers to eat hum sub ka, but our khawe so mar jave, in addition to dissatisfaction among the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, has provoked outrage.

The province is called Swatyatta state, but Pakistan has been doing its own thing there. For example, in the 19th century, the Pak government immediately handed over 5,160 square kilometers of so-called Shaksgam valley of Gilgit-Baltistan to China. The locals protested against the donation, but the Pak army suppressed it. A number of engineering projects have been undertaken here after Pakistan's growing friendship with China, as the longest road from Chinese-occupied Tibet to the port of Balochistan's Gwa Dar passes through Gilgit-Baltistan. The locals are not ready to accept that Pakistan and China are forcibly expropriating land for road construction for their own selfish ends.

A recently undertaken project to build a 3 meter (5 feet) high dimer-bhasha on the Indus River is closed. Not only has China taken responsibility for its construction, but it has allocated a huge budget of ૪૪૨ 3 billion. After this closure, 1,500 acres of farmland will come under the deep waters of the Indus. 3,115 houses in about 31 villages are to be flooded. Is. The Buddha carvings carved on the rocks of the Karakoram Mountains in the early 6th century are also about to sink.

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Gilgit-Baltistan, which has been separated from Pakistan for almost seventy years and has been enjoying the status of an autonomous state for a long time, now merges with Pakistan as the fifth province. The first reason is that after the loss of autonomy, the province cannot be dominated by a governor who is the constitutional head as well as a political head by the chief minister. The reins of power fall into the hands of Islamabad. As a result, the crop leader sitting in the Prime Minister's chair can loosen or pull the reins at his discretion.

Second, the Kashmir region of about 1.5 lakh square kilometers will become a political as well as geographical part of Pakistan after the dissolution of the disputed territory. There is a big difference between having a disputed area of ​​land and being part of another country.

Third, the region will be able to undertake more projects like the Dimer-Language Dam in Gilgit-Baltistan, which is sitting next to Pakistan after the Islamabad government's political shoes come down. It is also possible that China will increase its military presence there to protect such projects. Some political experts believe that the rulers of Pakistan are dreaming of turning the Line of Control (LoC) passing through Gilgit-Baltistan into an international border with the help of China.

All these are the predictions of political scholars and the conclusions drawn on the basis of them. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. But this is not the first time in seven decades that a political upheaval is taking place in Kashmir, which India considers its own across the LoC. It's just a matter of a few days. ■