Kashmir: The Unresolved Dispute and UN

Kashmir is a nuclear flash point, one of the biggest unresolved disputes of the world, the major bone of contention between Pakistan and India, the reason for three scale wars between the two nations, not to forget the countless skirmishes on the border and according to some experts a ticking bomb, which might result in a nuclear holocaust.

          Everyone knows about the above-mentioned facts, including the bitter history of partition of the sub continent in 1947. The dispute erupted when the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was forcefully and unjustly annexed to India. Pakistan retaliated and a war was started between the newly born states, know as the “first Kashmir war”. Father of the Pakistani nation Muhammad Ali Jinnah ordered the combined military Chief of Pakistan and India, General Douglas Gracey to invade Kashmir but he did not carry out Quaid’s orders, resultantly leaving no option for the tribals, Kashmiris and some soldiers of Pakistan Army who were on leave to march towards Kashmir for its liberation. This indigenous movement proved pivotal and resulted in the liberation of some of the Kashmiri areas now known as AJ&K and Gilgit Baltistan.

India was baffled by the Pakistan’s initiative as she was not expecting such a firm and action oriented response from the infant state on Kashmir. The interesting fact that many people do not know is that it was not Pakistan that approached the United Nations for resolving the Kashmir dispute through a plebiscite. It was infact India who was surprised and afraid of loosing the control of the valley by calculating / assessing the progress of the Pakistani tribesmen and Kashmiris in a bid to free Kashmir of her subjugation, so she went running to the UN Security Council and called for help.

On April 21, 1948 after the first Kashmir war’s cease fire, the UN Security Council passed its famous Resolution Number 47 in its 286^th meeting under the subject “The India Pakistan Question”. The result of which was “adopted” under chapter IV of the UN charter. One cannot ignore the Indian stubbornness, guile and mischief on Kashmir as today they deny their own demand made in 1948 to the UN, which was to resolve the Kashmir issue through a UN monitored plebiscite for the Kashmiri People.

After the resolution was passed in 1948 on Kashmir, over the next few years the UN Security Council passed four new resolutions, reversing the terms of Resolution 47 to include a synchronous withdrawal of both Indian and Pakistani troops from the region on recommendations of General Andrew Mc Naughton. To this end UN, arbitrators put forward 11 different proposals for the demilitarization of the Kashmiri region, all of which were accepted by Pakistan but rejected by the Indian Government.

Indian authorities exhausted all callous and brutal options to defuse the indigenous movement for the right to self-determination and failed to produce any desired result. The fascist Narendra Modi-led government resorted to other options by unilaterally and unlawfully stripping the special status of the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) on August 5, 2019.

Due to the humanitarian aspect to dispute and the nuclear dimension to the equation, the dispute is a matter of concern for the entire world. The Indian state is subjecting to grave human rights violations in IIOJK and its occupying forces and committing atrocities in IIOJK that are no less than war crimes. The champions of human rights in international community need to put their political and economic interests aside for a movement and stop Indian from murdering humanity in Kashmir.

The UN, EU and OIC should force India to conduct a plebiscite under the auspices of UNSC resolutions in the state and let the Kashmiris decide their future.