Author: Malika Baltistani
Publication: Dawn, Pakistan
Date: August 28, 2002
URL: http://www.dawn.com/2002/08/28/letted.htm#5
This refers to your editorial 'Clash
in Gultari' (Aug 25) concerning the recent infantry and air attacks by
the Indian forces in Gultari area.
The press and the ISPR have been
treating Gultari as part of Kashmir which is not correct. Actually it is
part of Gilgit and Biltistan (Northern Areas).
We, the people of Northern Areas,
don't favour the idea of Gultari being part of Kashmir or the Kashmir conflict
as being regarded by the authorities in their statements and their correspondence
with the UN, international community and organizations.
However, if such is the case then
we would have been provided with fundamental and democratic rights. For
the last 54 years, we have been involved in the Kashmir conflict against
our free will and denied constitutional rights, including representation
in the elected House.
We are subjected to the worst violation
of our fundamental rights whereas the people of the Indian- held the Azad
Kashmir enjoy constitutional status as well as other rights. Such geographical
misprints have only been adding to our grief.
(Malika Baltistani, Chairperson,
Gilgit Biltistan National Alliance)
======================
Clash in Gultari
Author: Editorial
Publication: Dawn, Pakistan
Date: August 25, 2002
Thursday's Indian infantry and air
attack on a Pakistani post in northern Kashmir takes the military stand-off
between the two countries to a slightly higher notch. So far, since India
began massing its troops along the Line of Control and the international
border, neither side has used its air force in skirmishes.
This was the first time since the
Kargil clashes of 1999 that India used its air force in a military operation
against Pakistan. The Indian aim apparently was to capture a post at a
height of 17,000 feet in the Gultari sector, 30 kilometres from Skardu.
The Indians failed to capture the post and withdrew, leaving behind several
casualties. Thanks to the restraint shown by Pakistan, which only took
defensive action, the clash remained localized.
India has denied that any such action
took place at all. However, this is not the first time that the Indians
have done so. As a Pakistan army spokesman pointed out, there was a clash
in July also, but India had denied it. Later, New Delhi sacked one of its
commanding officers.
For the world at large, the Gultari
clash serves to highlight the danger that the massing of troops along the
border and the unsolved Kashmir issue pose to peace in South Asia. More
specifically, the ground-air action in the snowy heights shows how things
could have gone out of hand if Pakistan had also called in its air force
for retaliatory action. Nobody then could have predicted the consequences
that would have followed.
The armies of the two countries
have now been in a state of eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation since December.
India began massing its troops on Pakistan's border in a threatening posture
after the terrorist attack on the Indian parliament building. By May, the
situation had become so critical that the world feared a nuclear holocaust
in South Asia. Following the diplomatic initiatives taken by powers friendly
to both, especially the US, a war was averted. But the danger still persists,
because the two armies continue to face each other in battle formation
along the common border.
During the diplomatic drive launched
by the major powers, India remained intransigent in its stand that it was
opposed in principle to a dialogue with Pakistan. This continues to be
its position, on the pretext that Islamabad has failed to stop "infiltration"
across the LoC. But Pakistan's efforts to control extremist groups and
elements are now widely recognized. Indeed, on his last visit to New Delhi,
US Secretary of State Colin Powell had asked India to reciprocate Pakistan's
gestures and take de- escalatory steps to defuse tension and start negotiations.
One hopes that during his talks
in New Delhi, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage would also
have stressed upon the Indian leadership the need for starting a dialogue
with Pakistan on all outstanding issues, including Kashmir, because there
is no other way to reduce tension and normalize relations between the two
countries. The incident has proved how easy it is in the present state
of tension to blunder into something more horrendous.
