Across the Divide:
Part 1: Lifting the Veil

Sultan Shahin, Asia Times
December 16, 2004

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan-administered Kashmir - This region is a confluence of three of the highest mountain ranges in the world, the Himalayas, the Karakoram and the Hindukush. Yet for 57 years, since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, this land of beautiful rivers and high mountain peaks has remained an area of darkness as Pakistan has kept it under an iron curtain.

It was with a sense of history, therefore, that a few Indian journalists, including this Asia Times Online correspondent, began their mission, once allowed entry into the region in the last week of November. It was a carefully planned trip under the aegis of the South Asian Free Media Association, which had earlier organized a similar trip to Indian-administered Kashmir for Pakistani journalists. Every minute of our time was accounted for, with the local police force escorting and watching our every move. Yet it must be said, to the credit of President General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, that true to his word, he did allow us to interact with every segment of public opinion, including those dissidents who are fiercely opposed to the Pakistani administration, and some who are, surprisingly, pro-India.

This has led to some speculation that the president may indeed be sincere in seeking to resolve the long-festering Kashmir tangle, even at the cost of losing complete control of the areas under Pakistan's control. Most observers and residents of Pakistan-administered Kashmir find it unimaginable that Pakistan would ever let go of this area, but that indeed is the implication of Musharraf's latest formula: demilitarize and change the status of all the regions of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. [1] He defines change of status as joint India-Pakistan control, United Nations control or independence. This leaves no room for exclusive Pakistani control of any parts of Kashmir. Could it be that he is seeking through the present media exposure to prepare Pakistani people for a change of
status of Kashmir areas under their control?

The most creative idea in the whole trip came from former prime minister and former president of the part of Kashmir that Pakistan has designated as Azad (Free) Jammu and Kashmir, or AJK, Sardar Abdul Qayyoom Khan. Khan's party, Muslim Conference, headed by his son Sardar Atiq Khan, now runs the local administration. Known for his problem-solving approach, the veteran politician said, "Look for interim, not permanent solutions. This way you can make even unpalatable ideas acceptable to the different parties to the Kashmir dispute. And who knows, in time interim solutions may lead to a permanent solution."

Azad Jammu and Kashmir, with an estimated population of 2.5 million, comprises six districts of Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Kotli, Poonch, Bagh and Bhimber.

Azad Kashmir creates the impression of being fairly prosperous. Mirpur in particular appears to be quite a wealthy town. But the residents make an effort to point out that this prosperity is no thanks to Pakistani largess. Anyone who points to the grand houses admiringly is told the story behind its prosperity. What happened is that in the early 1950s, Pakistan decided to construct a dam on the river Jhelum to meet its electricity needs. Hundreds were displaced from the villages on the site of the dam. But they found work on the Mangla Dam. However, once the dam was constructed, they had nowhere to go. So many of them decided, encouraged by the British construction company for which they were working, to use the little money they had received as compensation for their land to buy tickets to go to England. Working as factory workers in the Midlands to begin with, they have now become quite prosperous. It is they, I was told, who have built these grand houses in Mirpur, more out of nostalgia than need.

Azad Kashmir has been used in the past decade-and-a-half as a base camp for jihad in the areas of Kashmir controlled by India. But this correspondent found it hard to discover any jihadi atmosphere in the area. All the stones jutting out of mountains overlooking the roads that criss-cross this mountainous region have been whitewashed free of all jihadi slogans. The only slogans left are those proclaiming support for candidates contesting local elections. The whitewashing has been done in the past year, after Musharraf's announcement that he would not allow Pakistani soil to be used for "terrorist" activities in other countries.

Another dividend of the peace process currently under way between India and Pakistan is the closure of all donation camps for Kashmiri jihad. Wherever one went in Pakistan, until a couple of years ago, particularly in the Punjabi towns of Lahore and Rawalpindi, and, of course, in AJK towns such as Muzaffarabad and Mirpur, virtually every street would have a group of people demanding "contributions" in cash and kind for fighting what they called jihad in Kashmir. This correspondent particularly looked for but could not discover a single such camp anywhere in these towns now.

Also conspicuous by its absence was any hostility toward India. The only clash that Indian media could see was between pro-Pakistan and pro-independence students in the campus of Azad Kashmir University. The literacy level, particularly among females, is very high in Pakistani Kashmir. Among those who put questions to Indian journalists, the most articulate and the most informed were female students, many of them studying engineering and other technical courses.

As for India, most Kashmiris show no hostility, even though this area has been used for years as a training camp for militants infiltrating into Indian-administered Kashmir. Even in one of the refugee camps we visited, Manak Payeen, which houses Indian Kashmiris displaced by years of militancy, there was no apparent hostility. Several people told us stories of atrocities perpetrated by the Indian army, stories of rape and custodial death and other human-rights violations. But as soon as this correspondent got hold of a Kashmiri away from the prying eyes of the Pakistani officials who were managing the interaction, all that this old man would talk about was his desire to go back to Indian Kashmir. He was looking forward, he said, with great anticipation to the bus service likely to start between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar, the capital of the Indian part of Kashmir.

This camp is situated on Chakothi road leading to Srinagar. Once the road opens, he told me, many people would go back to Indian Kashmir, and if the first batch is not maltreated by Indian authorities, as they fear, the trickle would turn into a flood, probably taking away one of the main propaganda planks of the Pakistani authorities. These refugees are regularly paraded before the international media and foreign government officials. This could be one reason Pakistan seems so reluctant to agree to the reopening of this traditional road that provided the only link to the world for the Kashmiris before 1947.

No hostility, but a great deal of curiosity about India is evident among Azad Kashmiris. From the common man to the elite, everyone wants to visit India. Former prime minister and president Abdul Qayyoom, former chief justice of the Azad Kashmir High Court Abdul Majeed Malik, and even the legendary leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Amanullah Khan, who has a murder case against him pending in India, all expressed a great desire to visit India.

A Kashmiri waiter in the Sangam Hotel where we stayed, situated on the confluence ( sangam) of the Jhelum and Neelum rivers, was curious to know the price of every vegetable sold in India. He hardly ever traveled to other parts of Pakistan, but for him the most important thing in life was to visit Ajmer, an Indian town famous for the shrine of a saint highly revered in the subcontinent, and Agra, the seat of the Taj Mahal.

For him and many other Kashmiris, the most important thing is not which government controls them, Indian or Pakistani - they are sick of all subcontinental politicians anyway. What they miss most in the present arrangement is access to places such as Ajmer and Agra and Delhi, which used to be part and parcel of their lives before partition in 1947, which also led to the effective partition of Kashmir. It does seem cruel indeed to divide these mountains and its people through a Line of Control [2] that passes through their very homes, sometimes leaving the bedroom in one country and the living room in another.

Notes [1] The territory of Kashmir was bitterly contested even before India and Pakistan won their independence from Britain in August 1947. Under the partition plan provided by the Indian Independence Act of 1947, Kashmir was free to accede to India or Pakistan. The Maharaja, Hari Singh, wanted to stay independent, but eventually decided to accede to India, signing over key powers to the Indian government - in return for military aid and a promised referendum.

Since then, the territory has been the flashpoint for two of the three India-Pakistan wars: the first in 1947-48, the second in 1965. In 1999, India fought a brief but bitter conflict with Pakistani-backed forces who had infiltrated Indian-controlled territory in the Kargil area.

In addition to the rival claims of Delhi and Islamabad to the territory, there has been a growing and often violent separatist movement against Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989.

Islamabad says that Kashmir should have become part of Pakistan in 1947, because Muslims are in the majority in the region. Pakistan also argues that Kashmiris should be allowed to vote in a referendum on their future, after numerous United Nations resolutions on the issue.

Delhi, however, does not want international debate on the issue, arguing that the Simla Agreement of 1972 provided for a resolution through bilateral talks. India points to the Instrument of Accession signed in October 1947 by the maharaja, Hari Singh.

Both India and Pakistan reject the option of Kashmir becoming an independent state.

[2] The LoC is a demarcation line established in January 1949 as a ceasefire line after the end of the first Kashmir war. In July 1972, after a second conflict, the LoC was re-established under the terms of the Simla Agreement, with minor variations on the earlier boundary. The LoC passes through a mountainous region about 5,000 meters high. North of the LoC, the rival forces have been entrenched on the Siachen Glacier (more than 6,000m high) since 1984 - the highest battlefield in the world. The LoC divides Kashmir on an almost two-to-one basis: Indian-administered Kashmir to the east and south (population about 9 million), which falls into the Indian-controlled state of Jammu and Kashmir; and Pakistani-administered Kashmir to the north and west (population about 3 million), which is labelled by Pakistan as "Azad" (Free) Kashmir. China also controls a small portion of Kashmir.

Sultan Shahin is a New Delhi-based writer.

Part 2: The Pakistani model of freedom (December 17, 2004)
Part 3: Gilgit Valley searches for identity (December 18, 2004)