Syed Basharat
Kashmir is a zone of chaos, a highest militarised zone in the world. Kashmir is a bone of fight between the two Nuclear Countries. The independence of India and Pakistan gave the birth to conflicts, chaos, and hatred. The two independent dominions of Pakistan and India were born on 14th and 15th of August respectively.The Kashmir conflict is a legacy of the past. The international community had given Pakistan and India many chances to resolve the outstanding issues. Right from partition apart from UN SC resolutions various agreements, mediations and talks have been articulated between the two nations. Tashkent Agreement, Shimla Agreement, Lahore Declaration, Agra Summit, Peace Process and Confidence Building Measures are the glaring examples.
On 14th April 2019 A suicide bomber crashes a car packed with 300kg of explosives into a convoy of Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF), killing more than 40 Indian paramilitary personnel, and injuring at least 70. The terror attack took place in Pulwama to which India vows retaliation. Nothing can justify this act that took lives of more than 40 persons.
In the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack, India withdraws most-favoured nation (MFN) status to Pakistan . India hikes the customs duty to 200 per cent on all goods imported from Pakistan and the bus service to Muzaffarabad was also suspended. Moreover India also decided to “stop” the flow of its share of water to Pakistan from rivers under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) after the Pulwama terror attack. Post pulwamaattack , separatist leaders were arrested during overnight raids as India launched a major crackdown across the Kashmir valley.
Pravin Sawhneyeditor of FORCE newsmagazine in one of his article mentioned that Balakotwas well chosen as It was evident that the operation was meant for publicity. A case in point, unsubstantiated media reports claimed that 300 to 350 Jaish terrorists in Balakot were eliminated by IAF strikes, a claim that has since been questioned by the international media, which was allowed by Pakistan to visit the target site. Subsequently, other media reports have emerged claiming that the IAF fighters did not actually cross the Line of Control. Instead, Balakot was attacked using stand-off weapons. Hence, deliberate confusion continues.
Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of Bengal (former, West Bengal) believes that starting with Pulwama entire episode is nothing but a charade to reap electoral benefit and berated Modi saying, “We don’t want politics over the blood of jawans”. Arundhuti Roy has, however, viewed these latest incidents on and around Kashmir more holistically, and argued that almost all Indian governments since 1947 have addressed the issue with disdain and violence and not empathy which has spiralled it to a situation where it has brought the two nuclear armed nations to war not once but on several occasions in the past and this is dangerous. She argues that while most Indian government lacked sincerity in addressing the complains of the Kashmiris, things got much worse since 1990s.opposition party president Rahul Gandhi was also skeptical about the timings of Pulwama attack and accused the Modi administration of wanting to instil war hysteria in Indian public for their own benefit. Many other Parliamentarians have also openly accused PM Narendra Modi of orchestrating the Pulwama Attack. Where one politician Wamin Mishra, has gone as far as saying that Modi knew about the attack 9 days in advance and he has proof to back his claim.
According to government sources The Indian Air Force airstrike in the town of Balakot killed about 300 militants which was regarded as baseless by Pakistan Govt. Indian Airforce Jets while crossing the line of control inside the Pakistani territory were hit by the Pakistan Air Force. The lone surviving Indian Wing Commander who was able to eject was subsequently taken under custody by the Pak army. Pakistan PM Khan later send back the Indian Wing Commander Abhinandan to his home country as a peace gesture. Even a limited confrontation would resolve nothing , on the contrary it would aggravate tensions and delay the process of conflict resolution . India and Pakistan should deal with Kashmir in such a way that future generation should not take uparms. The two should learn a lesson from Germany and France who were once bitter neighbours, fought against each other in the two global wars but now are the part of strong European Union, sharing a free border, both using the same Euro. India and Pakistan should repair the damage they have done for the last 65 years and pledge to cooperate in economic, technological and social areas. This can be achieved by soft hand, making Line of Control as Line of cooperation to diminish and eliminate their mistrust and stubbornness.
(The author is a freelancer . Views are exclusively his own)
