Line of Control as Prospective International Border
13 Jul, 2000 · 387
Wg Cdr N. K. Pant feels that a territorial status quo in J&K will be to India’s advantage
Even after instigating the proxy war in
Jammu and Kashmir
for more than ten years, the Pakistani military establishment’s dream of bleeding the Indian security forces white has not been realised. Their resolute fighting compelled
Pakistan
to beat a retreat from Kargil and foiled its attempts to sponsor armed mercenaries to destabilise
Kashmir
.
Pakistan
’s obsession with
Kashmir
however, has taken more than 50,000 lives during the last decade. The time has finally arrived for
Pakistan
to realise its folly which, has bled it, converted it into a failed state on the brink of political and economic breakdown. Since a military solution has obviously not succeeded, the answer lies in having peaceful relations with
India
by recognising the sanctity of the existing Line of Control (LoC) and eventually transforming the de facto line of control to a de jure international border between the two South Asian nations.
Pakistan
’s army in the guise of Pathan tribals had attacked the former princely state of
Kashmir
; its ruler had legally acceded to
India
after signing an Instrument of Accession under the provisions of the Indian Independence Act passed by the British Parliament earlier that year. The line of control is more than 700 kilometers long, from the Akhnoor sector in the south, proceeding north and north-eastwards and, ending up at Point NJ 9842 near Thang, south of the Siachen glacier. Thereafter, it was left unmarked up to the natural border of
India
in the extreme north as this region was considered inaccessible.
Pakistan
has revived it. The Indian Prime Minister had also expressed his government’s resolve to liberate the
Pakistan
occupied territories of
Kashmir
. Such rhetorical statements only add to tensions between the two hostile neighbours, now armed with nuclear weapons. This may be one of the several compulsions propelling the
US
to emphasise the sanctity of the LoC. to avoid a military flare up in
South Asia
. The
US
pressure may force
India
and
Pakistan
to find a final solution to the
Kashmir
problem by converting the LoC into a permanent international border.
Jammu and Kashmir
will definitely be to
India
’s advantage. The ceasefire line, since converted into a LoC, is not the natural border separating POK from J&K. But it certainly delineates the ethnic, cultural and linguistic divide in the state. On the Indian side the Kashmiri and Dogri ethos is apparent, and corresponds with Pan-Indian secularism; but the population on the other side is ethnically closer to
Pakistan
’s heartland focussing around
Lahore
and
Rawalpindi
.
Islamabad
’s policy makers sees the
territory
of
J
&K as crucial to
Pakistan
’s existence on the basis of the Muslim League’s two-nation theory. The bitter truth needs to be appreciated by Islamabad is that any government in New Delhi which tries to withdraw from Kashmir hoped for by Islamabad, would not survive in office.
The LoC was known earlier as the Cease Fire Line before the Simla Accord, and as a result of UN Security Council resolutions in 1949. Immediately after gaining freedom in August 1947,
The Indian Parliament has passed a resolution a couple of years back declaring the whole state of Jammu and Kashmir, including the part across the LoC under Pakistan’s military occupation, as an integral part of India. With the passage of time, this resolution had disappeared from public memory. But the tough stance of the BJP led the government, especially after the toppling of the democratic government in
A territorial status quo in
The Americans, Europeans and other powers have repeatedly advised Islamabad to respect the LoC and desist from armed intervention in the State, but, the Pakistani leadership has been justifying ‘jehad’ as the means to liberate Kashmir. The highly fundamentalist vision of
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