Despite the hostility between the two neighbours, Pakistan and India, the news of a seminar titled India-Pakistan conference - a road map towards peace, is like a whiff of fresh air. Former Indian Prime Minister I K Gujral is likely to open the colloquium.
What better way is there to iron out the wrinkles in Pak-India ties than a people-to-people contact in which intellectuals and erudite scholars of both erstwhile alienated neighbours will sit and discuss peace. However, amidst the promise of thaw in the deep chill, an apparent spanner has been thrown in the works; in the three-day event titled Issue of Autonomy: Kashmir and Balochistan in which peace activists from the two countries will discuss autonomy to Kashmir and Balochistan. The session will be addressed by human rights activist Asma Jahangir and Balochistan Senator Hasil Khan Bizenjo from Pakistan, and Kashmiri leaders Yasin Malik and Sajad Lone. Key speakers from Pakistan include former ministers Sherry Rehman and Iqbal Haider, advocate Aitzaz Ahsan and controversial defence analyst Ayesha Siddiqa. From India, the conference will be addressed by Kuldip Nayar, former minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, former navy chief L Ramdas, Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti and Kamal Chenoy of the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Very slyly, Kashmir and Balochistan have been bracketed as if the two issues are at par. For the record, Kashmir is a disputed territory, an unfinished agenda of the partition of the subcontinent into Bharat and Pakistan. Indian forces illegally occupied the Valley of Kashmir in 1948. Both fledgling nations went to war and the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru approached the United Nations, which brokered peace and passed Resolutions 47 on April 21 and 51 on June 03, 1948, asking for a plebiscite for the people of Kashmir to decide whether they would accede to Pakistan or India. Unfortunately for the last 62 years India, in total disregard to the UN Resolutions, not only has failed to fulfil the demand of the plebiscite, but also has committed massive genocide and rape of Kashmiri Muslims. However, Balochistan has a different connotation altogether. The region was largely under Iranian kingly control and the autonomous principality of Kalat. But the British wrested control away from the Khan of Kalat in the early 1840s and it became the staging ground for the various Afghan-British wars (the Great Game) in the later half of the 19th century. The 1876 treaty between the Khan of Kalat and Robert Sandeman accepted the independence of the Kalat as an allied state with British military outposts in the region. After the 1878 Afghan War, the British established Balochistan as a provincial entity centred around the municipality of Quetta-Kalat, Makran, and Lasbella continuing to exist as princely realms. The British interest in the region was largely to use it as a landmass bulwark against Central Asian encroachments. Around the 1930s, Balochi nationalist parties emerged to contest for freedom from British rule. They took the princely State of Kalat as the focal point of a free and united Balochistan. Baglar Begi Khan declared the independence of Kalat on August 15, 1947. He assured the neo-state of Pakistan that Kalat will participate in the defence and infrastructure but will be autonomous. Later, Balochistan ceded to join Pakistan at the Quaid-i-Azam’s invitation, becoming an integral part of the country. Today, a number of separatist groups in the province have engaged in an armed struggle against the Pakistani government. However, the tribal uprisings of 1948 and 1968 were limited in scope; a more serious insurgency was led by the Marri and Mengal tribes between 1973 and 1977. All these groups fought for the existence of a “Greater Balochistan” - a single independent state ruled under tribal jirgas (a tribal system of government) and comprising the historical Balochistan region, presently split between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Similarly in 2005 there was another struggle to achieve these aims. Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have claimed that unrest and insurgency has been fomented on behest of the Indian intelligence agency RAW. Indian currency notes, arms and training manuals have been produced as evidence of RAW’s complicity. Allegedly Afghanistan has been used by RAW as a staging post for training and launching of Baloch insurgent groups like: Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Balochistan Rights Movement (BRM), Balochistan Republican Army (BRA), and the American Friends of Balochistan. Both India and Pakistan have, for the last 62 years, seen many ups and downs in bilateral relations. But the current phase of composite dialogue was significant. Four rounds had been completed, and the 5th was in progress. Last year’s attacks on Mumbai completely hijacked this scenario and brought the relationship between the two countries to the ‘breakdown point’. This was further intensified by the war hysteria whipped up by India. Ever since the Indian government has announced a pause on the dialogue following the 26/11 attacks, people in both countries who are desirous of peace, have been trying to convince their respective governments to make serious attempts to restart the dialogue. The dialogue is important because another conflict between the two nuclear-armed countries will be disastrous for the area. War can destroy the fragile economic and political stability in the South Asian region as a whole, with disastrous consequences for the common people. The people of Pakistan would welcome peace but not at the cost of intervention in it’s internal matters. Surely, a problem does exist in Balochistan but it has to be addressed ‘only’ by the government of Pakistan. Therefore, it cannot be equated with the internationally recognised issue of Kashmir. Any attempts by the Indians to hoodwink the world community through seemingly innocuous but maliciously aimed seminars must be thwarted. Interestingly, the official website of the India International Centre (IIC) under whose aegis, the said seminar is being organised, does not list the event in the programmes being held at the IIC. This cloak and dagger modus operandi reveals the stealthy malice and malevolence.
What better way is there to iron out the wrinkles in Pak-India ties than a people-to-people contact in which intellectuals and erudite scholars of both erstwhile alienated neighbours will sit and discuss peace. However, amidst the promise of thaw in the deep chill, an apparent spanner has been thrown in the works; in the three-day event titled Issue of Autonomy: Kashmir and Balochistan in which peace activists from the two countries will discuss autonomy to Kashmir and Balochistan. The session will be addressed by human rights activist Asma Jahangir and Balochistan Senator Hasil Khan Bizenjo from Pakistan, and Kashmiri leaders Yasin Malik and Sajad Lone. Key speakers from Pakistan include former ministers Sherry Rehman and Iqbal Haider, advocate Aitzaz Ahsan and controversial defence analyst Ayesha Siddiqa. From India, the conference will be addressed by Kuldip Nayar, former minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, former navy chief L Ramdas, Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti and Kamal Chenoy of the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Very slyly, Kashmir and Balochistan have been bracketed as if the two issues are at par. For the record, Kashmir is a disputed territory, an unfinished agenda of the partition of the subcontinent into Bharat and Pakistan. Indian forces illegally occupied the Valley of Kashmir in 1948. Both fledgling nations went to war and the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru approached the United Nations, which brokered peace and passed Resolutions 47 on April 21 and 51 on June 03, 1948, asking for a plebiscite for the people of Kashmir to decide whether they would accede to Pakistan or India. Unfortunately for the last 62 years India, in total disregard to the UN Resolutions, not only has failed to fulfil the demand of the plebiscite, but also has committed massive genocide and rape of Kashmiri Muslims. However, Balochistan has a different connotation altogether. The region was largely under Iranian kingly control and the autonomous principality of Kalat. But the British wrested control away from the Khan of Kalat in the early 1840s and it became the staging ground for the various Afghan-British wars (the Great Game) in the later half of the 19th century. The 1876 treaty between the Khan of Kalat and Robert Sandeman accepted the independence of the Kalat as an allied state with British military outposts in the region. After the 1878 Afghan War, the British established Balochistan as a provincial entity centred around the municipality of Quetta-Kalat, Makran, and Lasbella continuing to exist as princely realms. The British interest in the region was largely to use it as a landmass bulwark against Central Asian encroachments. Around the 1930s, Balochi nationalist parties emerged to contest for freedom from British rule. They took the princely State of Kalat as the focal point of a free and united Balochistan. Baglar Begi Khan declared the independence of Kalat on August 15, 1947. He assured the neo-state of Pakistan that Kalat will participate in the defence and infrastructure but will be autonomous. Later, Balochistan ceded to join Pakistan at the Quaid-i-Azam’s invitation, becoming an integral part of the country. Today, a number of separatist groups in the province have engaged in an armed struggle against the Pakistani government. However, the tribal uprisings of 1948 and 1968 were limited in scope; a more serious insurgency was led by the Marri and Mengal tribes between 1973 and 1977. All these groups fought for the existence of a “Greater Balochistan” - a single independent state ruled under tribal jirgas (a tribal system of government) and comprising the historical Balochistan region, presently split between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Similarly in 2005 there was another struggle to achieve these aims. Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have claimed that unrest and insurgency has been fomented on behest of the Indian intelligence agency RAW. Indian currency notes, arms and training manuals have been produced as evidence of RAW’s complicity. Allegedly Afghanistan has been used by RAW as a staging post for training and launching of Baloch insurgent groups like: Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Balochistan Rights Movement (BRM), Balochistan Republican Army (BRA), and the American Friends of Balochistan. Both India and Pakistan have, for the last 62 years, seen many ups and downs in bilateral relations. But the current phase of composite dialogue was significant. Four rounds had been completed, and the 5th was in progress. Last year’s attacks on Mumbai completely hijacked this scenario and brought the relationship between the two countries to the ‘breakdown point’. This was further intensified by the war hysteria whipped up by India. Ever since the Indian government has announced a pause on the dialogue following the 26/11 attacks, people in both countries who are desirous of peace, have been trying to convince their respective governments to make serious attempts to restart the dialogue. The dialogue is important because another conflict between the two nuclear-armed countries will be disastrous for the area. War can destroy the fragile economic and political stability in the South Asian region as a whole, with disastrous consequences for the common people. The people of Pakistan would welcome peace but not at the cost of intervention in it’s internal matters. Surely, a problem does exist in Balochistan but it has to be addressed ‘only’ by the government of Pakistan. Therefore, it cannot be equated with the internationally recognised issue of Kashmir. Any attempts by the Indians to hoodwink the world community through seemingly innocuous but maliciously aimed seminars must be thwarted. Interestingly, the official website of the India International Centre (IIC) under whose aegis, the said seminar is being organised, does not list the event in the programmes being held at the IIC. This cloak and dagger modus operandi reveals the stealthy malice and malevolence.
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