Pakistani Held Kasmir & its realities.

indianguy4u · 12-26-2005, 08:18 AM

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Aug 2002 Edition

"Azad Kashmir" and "Northern Territories" or Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK)?

The Struggle for Self-Determination and Democratic Rights

International attention on Kashmir has invariably focused on the tensions and conflict between Kashmiri separatists and the Indian government. Any discussion on self-determination or human rights is routinely prefaced on the assumption that the situation in Pakistan-held Kashmir is "normal", that the Pakistani government is a "friend" of the Kashmiri people, and it is only the Indian government that is hostile to the "genuine interests" of the people of Kashmir.

Yet, Amir Humza Qureshi, founder of the Gilgit-Baltistan Jamhoori Mahaz, and jailed on several occasions for trying to represent the interests of the people of Gilgit (one of the districts in Pakistan-held Kashmir which Pakistan euphemistically describes as "Northern Areas") counters this view. In a letter to the Urdu daily, Jasarat, Amir Humza Qureshi, wrote: "It is a fact that people of this region (Northern Areas) are facing more human rights violations and whenever the official (Pakistani) media talks of repression in (Indian) Kashmir, people with strong hearts laugh at this hypocritical attitude, and people with weak hearts cry."

"India is not perpetrating even one hundredth part of the repression that people spread over an area of 28,000 miles have been facing for the past 50 years. The Indian Government has given people all their fundamental human rights and in spite of that they are in a state of confrontation against the government. But the people of this region (Northern Areas) are far behind the rest of the world in matters of fundamental human rights, justice and economic development."

This is in stark contrast to those in the Islamic movement that see Indian Kashmir as territory that needs to be liberated from the clutches of India, and see any retreat from confrontation with India (regarding Kashmir) as a betrayal of the "Islamic" cause. For instance, an opinion piece on khilafah.com argues: "Therefore, the only way forward for Kashmir is to liberate it physically and return the rule back to Islam. This is the verdict from Islam and as Muslims we are required to accept the judgement of Allah (Subhanahu Wa ta’aala). The obligation lies on the Pakistani army to move and overthrow this illegitimate Pakistani regime (i.e. the Musharraf regime), and give its support (nussrah) to the sincere sons of this Ummah who are calling for the re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah State which will work to reunite the land of Kashmir with the land of Pakistan and one day Insha-Allah, the whole of India. (Note that this view considers not just Kashmir as part of the "Islamic Khilafah State" but all of India as well.)[fundo desire of all pakistanis esp the pdf ones]

Rasulullah (Sallallahu alaihi wasallam) said in a hadith,“The killing of a Muslim is to Allah worse than the end of the World”. Now in Kashmir, Musharraf prepares to betray the Ummah yet again. America pushed Pakistan and India to the brink of a ‘war’ neither side can afford, so as to provide the cover and moral climate for Musharraf (America’s proxy dictator) to arrest, eliminate and dismantle the Mujahideen; who during the Kargil incident, came heroically close to defeating the Hindu army.

But such views are not shared by the majority of the people living in Pakistan held Kashmir. In fact, human rights leaders in Pakistan-held Kashmir describe it as "Occupied Kashmir" (POK) insisting that only the "Pakistani part of Kashmir can be considered occupied". And that is why virtually all the governments in Pakistan (military or civilian) have gone to great lengths to suppress the democratic voice of the people living in POK. Pakistan has deliberately kept the status of POK (comprising "Azad Kashmir" and the "Northern Areas") ambiguous, neither allowing them to secede, nor allowing these territories to be fully integrated into Pakistan.

Residents of the sparsely populated, and ethnically and linguistically diverse "Northern Areas" assert that they have no legal status. They are neither a province of Pakistan nor a part of "Azad Kashmir". They are ruled directly from Islamabad through a Northern Areas Council which is headed by Pakistan’s Minister for Kashmir Affairs. An Islamabad-appointed chief executive, (normally a retired Pakistani military officer), is the local administrative head. The Northern Areas Council meets only when Pakistan’s Minister for Kashmir Affair convenes it. According to supporters of Amir Humza Qureshi, the Northern Areas were annexed by Pakistan through an illegal attack in 1947 even before India and Pakistan became independent. This was possible due to the chicanery of the British colonial authorities (who at that time controlled the armies in Pakistan and India). The British rulers ensured that the Pakistani flag was unfurled in Gilgit even before they had conferred independence on Pakistan.

Although political activity is severely repressed, political organizations such as the Balawaristan National Front (BNF) have emerged to take on the Pakistani government in the Northern Areas. The Gilgit Baltistan United Action Forum for Self Rule has been demanding the right to self-rule. Another party, the Muttehada Quami Party (MQP) wants to attain a status comparable to that of "Azad" Kashmir. Many other groups however remain underground since any overt organizing or expression of political will, even peaceful protests have led to arbitrary arrests and long jail terms. Even demonstrations by students in Gilgit struggling against high unemployment have been brutally crushed.

According to supporters of the BNF, the "Northern Areas" have no university and no professional colleges. The government has set up only 12 high schools and two regional colleges with no post graduate facilities. Very few locals are able to get government jobs, and when they do, they are paid 25 per cent less than non-native entrants from Pakistan's Punjab province. The mainstay of the economy is agriculture, but since much of the land is held by a small minority of very privileged landlords, and since the absence of democratic rights has allowed the perpetuation of feudal relations, the majority of the people live in sheer misery. In addition, poverty and high taxes have forced many of the smaller land-holders to sell their lands to rich settlers from the plains. Although there have been efforts by local NGOs to set up village schools, literacy remains very low. While 45-50% of boys are now enrolled in school in some villages, the enrolment of girls is much lower (less than 15% in many cases). 55 years after it's annexation by Pakistan, adult literacy in the Northern Areas is 14 per cent for males and 3.5 per cent for women. There are no local dailies, or local radio or television stations. According to the most recently available data, there is just one doctor for 6,000 people. Piped water supply is virtually non-existent. And two thirds of the population must do without electricity in an area where winters are extremely harsh.

K2, Gilgit-Baltistan's only weekly carries the following on it's mast-head: 'Sarzamin-Be-Ain Ki Awaz' (the voice of the constitution-less). One of the biggest obstacles faced by the people of Gilgit-Baltistan has been the systematic campaign of terror and discrimination waged against the region's Shia population. Shias who comprised over 75% of the original inhabitants of the land now risk being outnumbered due to the continuous settling of non-locals (mostly Punjabis) in the region, who now make up almost 40% of the territories' population.

Journalist Sriram Chaulia has noted how expropriation of land and residence rights of natives in POK stands in sharp contrast to strictly adhered provisions in the Indian constitution disallowing non-Kashmiris to acquire property in J&K. Far from a ‘special status’ that India’s Article 370 grants to J&K, Northern Areas of POK lack any constitutional status whatsoever.

According to an Aug 3, 2001 report in the Times of India, Abdul Hamid Khan, chairman of BNF, called upon the United Nations and the International Court of Justice to book Musharraf and other Pakistani generals as "war criminals for the genocide" carried out by them in the "Northern Areas". In his letter to the UN (a copy of which was also sent to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee), the BNF leader noted that the Pakistani government and particularly its military were settling their own armed citizens and Afghan and other terrorists besides increasing the presence of "their notorious intelligence agencies (i.e. the ISI) in Balwaristan to turn the indigenous people into a minority. Comparing Gen. Musharraf to former military ruler Gen. Zia who had played a heinous role in 1988 and 1999 by launching a "genocide campaign" against the innocent indigenous people, he further asserted that more than 900 youth had been killed, 1,000 had became disabled or wounded, while 40 were still missing and several civilian buildings were destroyed due to Pakistan sponsored terrorist activities. Abdul Hamid Khan also stated that political and human rights activities were completely denied by Pakistan as a result of which more than 100 politically active people were facing sedition cases and "no impartial judicial system existed in Balawaristan."

The situation in "Azad Kashmir" is only marginally better. Even as Pakistan's military readers keep up the sham of championing "self determination" for Indian Kashmir, for "Azad Kashmir" i.e. POK, self determination, (as inscribed in the constitution), relates only to the unconditional accession of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan. Part 2 of Section 7 of the POK Constitution states: "No person or political party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted to propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to, the ideology of the State’s accession to Pakistan".

Under Section 5(2) (vii) of the POK Legislative Assembly Election Ordinance 1970, a person would be disqualified for propagating any opinion or action in any manner prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan, the ideology of POK's accession to Pakistan, or the sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan. The same caveat applies to anyone who "defames or brings into ridicule the judiciary of AJK, of Pakistan, or the Armed Forces of Pakistan".

In 1991, POK's " Prime Minister", Mumtaz Rathore was dismissed, arrested and flown by helicopter to a Pakistani prison in 1991. In the 1996 elections in POK, parties and candidates who wished to participate on the platform of independence and refused to sign the declaration calling POK’s accession to Pakistan an article of faith, were denied the right to field candidates. The oath of office for the President, PM, Minister, Speaker, MLA or MLC of POK clearly includes the following clause: "That I will remain loyal to the country (Pakistan) and the cause of accession of the state of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan".

But such oaths are completely one-sided since the residents of POK are given no rights in Pakistan - they may neither vote in Pakistan's general elections, nor take their grievances to the Pakistani Supreme Court. Nor may they hold any public office in Pakistan. Nor do they have any rights on the Pakistan National Budget. But even those who go along with such insulting inequities are then treated shabbily by the Pakistan authorities. After the elections in June 1996, the "President" of POK, Sikander Hayat Khan, was removed through a voice vote in the Assembly.

It has been further pointed out that the POK legislative assembly lacks few powers since it requires Islamabad's prior approval for all enactments of statutory rules, appointments, public property, budget, loans, taxes, internal security and civil supplies. Administrative justice handled by an Executive Council of 15 (7 of them non-Kashmiris) that is directly responsible to the Pakistani government.

Dissident voices have been continuously suppressed. Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, chairman of the United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) based in POK, was picked up by men from the Pakistani security forces near Bagh and reportedly tortured. The London-based Kashmir International Front (KIF), which is the international office for several political groups fighting Pakistani occupation of Kashmir, sent out appeals for his release.

After his release, Shaukat Ali Kashmiri (who has now taken refuge in Switzerland) condemned the killing of innocent villagers by the Pakistan-backed terrorists, observing: "What kind of freedom struggle is that which kills its own people. We cannot continue like this where the foreign mercenaries continue to kill the local inhabitants". He also criticized the Pakistan Government for detaining several leaders of Balwaristan, Gilgit and PoK for speaking against Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Peace Committee, Anwar Khan, pointed out that Pakistan had been regarded as the aggressor in the region by earlier UN resolutions and hence should vacate the occupied territory. The Jammu and Kashmir Human Rights Movement (JKHRM) has stated that the Pakistani army intelligence and Pak-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) authorities were committing inhuman atrocities and large scale repression on political parties and workers demanding withdrawal of illegal Pakistani army occupation the area. Justice (Retd) Mohd Akram, president of the JKHRM has listed specific human rights violations by Pakistan intelligence agencies and PoK police noting that Saloom Awan, vice president of NAP had been subjected to inhuman torture by Pakistan ISI and state secret agencies and had to flee the country as his life was in danger, Justice Akram said, adding there were several "examples of physical elimination of political leaders in PoK."

Toronto based 'Council of Advocates International' released a report on human rights violations in PoK last year in which it pointed to how terrorist groups harassed and blackmailed ordinary residents. It specifically noted how Mushtaq Ali and Naseer Khawaja were contacted by a group of Muzaffarabad-based "militant" leaders. The two were asked to transport arms across the border into India. But when they refused, the two were threatened with dire consequences. The next day they were arrested by the ISI and held incommunicado in a house for ten days. They were brutally tortured and humiliated. After their release the local police started harassing them and threatened to charge them with theft, arms trading and other
criminal acts. They were forced to leave Muzaffarabad and are now in hiding. The report also cites cases of sexual assault and repeated rape.

It is little wonder that Amir Humza Qureshi has said that people of the Northern Areas "face more Human Rights Violations than anywhere else in the world". Most recently, Altaf Qadiri, secretary general of the Hurriyat Conference's Pakistan chapter was quoted by Pakistani newspaper Daily Times as having told reporters: "...The present government in PoK is worse than the Farooq Abdullah government (of Indian Kashmir)" (As reported on July 26, in the Indian Express)

That such a statement should emanate from a group widely perceived as being anti-Indian, and who for long was considered the main, even sole "legitimate" voice of the Kashmiri people ought to be the greatest indictment of Pakistan's claim to be the greatest "upholder and champion of Kashmiri self-determination". Contrary to all the rhetorical bombast, the Pakistani military is, in fact, one of the greatest hindrances to the realization of self-determination in multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious Jammu and Kashmir.

indianguy4u · 12-26-2005, 08:24 AM

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Revolt Brewing in the so-called Northern Areas of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir

Amir Humza Qureshi says Northern Areas people facing more Human Rights Violations than anywhere else in the world.

The part of the state of Jammu & Kashmir called the Northern Areas by Pakistan was annexed through an illegal attack in 1947 even before India and Pakistan became independent. This was possible due to the chicancery of the British who at that time controlled the two opposing armies. They ensured that the Pakistan flag was unfurled in Gilgit even before the British Government conferred independence on Pakistan. Ironically, the very Gilgit Scouts that unfurled the Pakistani flag in Gilgit, capital of the so-called Northern Areas, has long been disbanded because its Pakistani masters no longer trusted the people of Gilgit. While the legatees of those perfidious colonial Britishers continue to talk about justice for J&K, the people of the so-called Northern Areas continue to live in an area of utter political darkness. Even after 50 years of independence they remain a colonised people without the right to vote or exercise their democratic option in any other way. They remain shadowed in poverty and underdevelopment without recourse to basic human rights. The heirs of the same scoundrels who imprisoned Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last emperor of India, in Burma where he did not have two "gaz zameen" for his grave, have been enlisted by the illegitimate rulers of Pakistan to espouse the cause of Kashmir in international fora.

Pakistanis can only talk about elah - accession - and every Kashmiri group seeking help from Pakistan must promise to accede to Pakistan. Otherwise like the JKLF they will be killed and their sisters raped. This is the truth. And what is accession - it is to suffer the fate of the miserable millions in the so-called Northern Areas where even after 50 years, the Punjabi rulers and their agents continue to kill Muslims.

A prominent leader of Occupied Kashmir (only the Pakistani part of Kashmir can be considered occupied) has been abducted by the agencies and is currently under torture. His name is Shaukat Ali Kashmiri. Appeals by various individuals and organisations, including Amnesty International, have not secured his release. We appeal to you to write to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and ask him to take control of his dogs. But who will talk of all the others who have been silently killed by the Punjabis of Pakistan, who only see Gilgit as a good holiday resort? Much is happening in the last forgotten valleys of the so-called Northern Areas and by the grace of God the people of Northern Areas, shall find their destiny as a free people. They shall stand one day shoulder to shoulder with their brothers of Jammu & Kashmir and the followers of the great peers of this land, proud and free and masters of their own destiny.

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Urdu daily Jasarat, the mouthpiece of the Jamaat-i-Islami, carried a long letter from emerging leader of Gilgit, Amir Humza Qureshi, rejecting the official propaganda about human rights violations in Indian side of Kashmir. "It is a fact that people of this region (northern areas) are facing more human rights violations and whenever the official media talks of repression in (Indian) Kashmir people with strong hearts laugh at this hypocritical attitude and people with weak hearts cry."

"India is not perpetrating even one hundredth part of the repression that people spread over an area of 28,000 miles have been facing for the past 50 years. The Indian Government has given people all their fundamental human rights and in spite of that they are in a state of confrontation against the government. But the people of this region (northern areas) are far behind the rest of the world in matters of fundamental human rights, justice and economic development."

The Pakistan Government says since northern areas are not a part of its territory it cannot give its people constitutional rights. But the people are not willing to stay like this anymore. The Balawaristan National Front (BNF) recently passed a resolution demanding autonomy for northern areas. Another party, the Muttehada Quami Party (MQP) wants a status like that of "Azad" Kashmir.

Shaukat Ali Kashmir Arrested & Tortured
Kashmiri political groups in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) have threatened state-wide agitation to press for the release of a pro-independence leader. Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, chairman of the United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) based in POK, was picked up by men from the Pakistani security forces near Bagh on 18 January according to the Kashmir International Front (KIF) based here.
The London group is the international office for several political groups fighting Pakistani occupation of Kashmir. UKPNP secretary general Sardar Ishtiaq Hussain addressed a press conference in Bagh following the arrest of Shaukat Ali Kashmiri to warn of an agitation if the party leader is not released

The Kashmir International Front has sent SOS messages to several governments in Europe and to human rights institutions such as Amnesty International. The Geneve-based International Secretariat of the World Organisations Against Torture, which claims to be the largest network of human rights organisations in the world, has sent a letter of protest to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Its is ironic that the world is more worried about the falling trees; they are sad that our white leopard are vanishing day by day; the dead bodies of our Markhor frightens them; they are going all out to preserve our eco system.But nobody ever thinks of the people of this land," says Raja Hussain Khan Maqpoon, editor of K2, Gilgit-Baltistan's only newspaper, a weekly. The tinge of sarcasm in his comment is obvious in his publication too.

'This land' refers to Pakistan's Northern Areas, spread over 28,000 sq. miles with a population of two million, comprising Gilgit and Baltistan on the border of Azad Kashmir-a sensitive and strategic area from Pakistan point of view.

"They Have Never Trusted Us", says PoK Leader
'Sarzamin-Be-Ain Ki Awaz' (the voice of constitution-less land) flashes from K2 masthead, a brave attempt in a region where where everything is considered suspicious by the power-that-be. Even ordinary documents are jealously guarded an attempt by to get hold of the copies of the Northern Areas Council's (see fact files) Rules of Biasness, Rules of Procedure, Legal Framework and even their annual development plan (ADP) failed. Apparently, in the Northern Areas these Apparently documents. Elsewhere in the country, similarly documents are openly accessible.

From 1947 till 1972 the northern areas were governed by the FCR (Frontier Crimes Regulations), denying the locals even their basic rights. There is much resentment here at the fact the FCR remained in force 25 years after independence, until it was belatedly lifted by Z.A. Bhutto.

"They (the pakistan government) have never trusted us. From day one, that is , November 1, 1947, till now we cannot govern our own land. If we are given that right, they think all hell will break lose," says the fiery Amir Hamza, a resident of Gilgit and a former SSP of Gizr district.

Amir Hamza has been fighting for the rights of the people of Gilgit and Baltistan since his college days, 1967-71, when he and his friends formed Gilgit-Baltistan Jamhoori Mahaz. His family wanted him to join civil service but he knew he wont be happy there, being inclined towards politics. His party one point demand was: allow us participation in Pakistan National Assembly or give us status like Azad Kashmir Assembly. A demand for which Hamza was jailed various times in his youth.

indianguy4u · 12-26-2005, 08:31 AM

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The last colony
Pakistan has lied to its Supreme Court by suppressing the indigenous people of Occupied Kashmir and resettling Punjabis there.
By Sreeram Sundar Chaulia

29 December 2001: On 28 May 1999, the Supreme Court of Pakistan delivered a stinging broadside of Islamabad’s colonial subjugation of the Northern Areas of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). It pronounced “it was not understandable on what basis the people of Northern Areas can be denied the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution”.

These are the right to equality before law, right to reside and move freely, right to vote, right to be governed by their chosen representatives, right to form political parties, right to assemble peacefully, right to freedom of speech and expression, right to habeas corpus and against illegal detention, right to acquire, hold and dispose property, and the right to have access to an appellate court of justice for the enforcement of all other rights guaranteed under the latest constitution of the country. (Since independence, Pakistan has devised and binned three written constitutions and the standing fourth one was drawn up in 1985).

The Pakistan Supreme Court verdict exposed the brutality, abuses and exactions perpetrated upon five-million inhabitants of PoK. It vindicated long-standing efforts of human-rights activists within and outside the country to alter the grossly unfair treatment meted out to what is officially called “Azad Kashmir.”

For more than 40 years, Pakistan has flouted every norm of civilised policy and behavior in PoK. Taking a cue from their Chinese mentors’ “pacification” of Tibet by ethnic flooding, successive governments uprooted and cleansed Kashmiris from their homeland and flooded the area with more loyal and dependent Punjabis.

A shocking statistic as per the 1991 census – far more grotesque that Dawa Norbu’s estimate that ethnic Han outnumber natives in Tibet by a 70-30 ratio – is that residents of “Azad Kashmir” are mostly Sunni Muslim and predominantly Punjabi-speaking, with barely 20 per cent Kashmiris. Expropriation of land and residence rights of natives in PoK stands in sharp contrast to strictly-adhered provisions in the Indian Constitution disallowing non-Kashmiris to acquire property in Jammu and Kashmir.

Far from a “special status” that India’s Article 370 grants to Jammu and Kashmir, Northern Areas of PoK lack any constitutional status. A Gilgiti or Baltistani cannot appeal to the Supreme Court nor have any legislative representative in the Pakistan National Assembly. The court in PoK does not entertain even writ petitions against human-rights violations.

All that rules in the name of law in PoK is summary administrative justice handled by an executive council of 15 (seven of them non-Kashmiris) that is directly responsible to the centre. The puppet “legislative assembly” in Muzaffarabad requires Islamabad's prior approval for all enactments of statutory rules, appointments, public property, budget, loans, taxes, internal security and civil supplies.

During “emergencies” (euphemism for popular unrest), even these semblances of institutional representation are silenced to facilitate the army’s scorched-earth raids. One horrendous genocide in 1988 in Gilgit had a certain Osama Bin Laden as chief “pacifier”. [musharaff was commander in chief then of NA]

“Azad Kashmir” is neither peopled largely by Kashmiris nor azad.

Development-wise, PoK remains one of the poorest and most neglected parts of Pakistan. Its per-capita income of Rs 1802 is miniscule compared to the national average of circa Rs 4500 and Jammu and Kashmir’s average of Rs 2700. Literacy rate in the Northern Areas is 14 per cent for males and 3.5 per cent for women. There is just one doctor for 6,000 people. Piped water supply is non-existent. So is electricity for more than two-thirds of the population of the area.

There is no “industry” to speak of except for some brick kilns. Most of the enterprising Mirpuris have settled in Britain to escape the listless fate of PoK Kashmiris. Jammu and Kashmir has comparatively better standards of development on all these counts despite bearing a debilitating jihadi insurgency for the last 12 years.

In 1982, General Zia-ul-Haq had mendaciously contended that the Northern Areas were not part of “Azad Kashmir” and had “nothing to do with the state of Jammu and Kashmir”. Pakistan regurgitated the argument to counter the deeply-embarrassing but well-documented May-1999 Supreme-Court judgement.

Reality is otherwise. Gilgit, Skardu, Ghizer, Diamir, Hanza and Chitral, among others, were petty chieftainships in a feudatory relationship with Maharaja Hari Singh. They comprised the lion’s share of 33,000 square miles of Kashmir that Afridi tribesmen and Pakistan army regulars unlawfully invaded and occupied in late 1947.

But Pakistani disingenuity about the Northern Areas and human-rights atrocities in PoK are no longer tenable because active national liberation movements have sprung up all over the region. According to Farooq Haider, chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF-Yasin Malik faction) charged with liberating PoK, “people’s urge to win their rights is simmering”.

One reason why Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) prefers jihadi terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad to JKLF against India is due to JKLF’s support for PoK liberation groups. In 1999, the All-Parties National Alliance (APNA) staged widespread mass demonstrations against the callousness of the Pakistan army in refusing the bodies of over 250 Pakistani soldiers from the Northern Areas used as cannon fodder in the Kargil war with India.

Following ferocious crackdowns, mass arrests and torture of nationalists who took to the streets, the prestigious Pakistani magazine Herald wrote that the Northern Areas were the “last colony” for the establishment in Islamabad.

More and more conscious residents of PoK are resorting to armed underground secession, spearheaded by the Balawaristan National Front (BNF). BNF leader Abdul Hamid Khan recently appealed to world conscience citing the pleas of “two million downtrodden people kept in slavery, and deprived of human rights, political rights, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of movement, right to justice, economic and cultural freedom.”

BNF rebels calling themselves fighters for “victims of Pakistani sectarian terrorism” have formed an embryonic army that aims to shake off the exploitation and ISI conscription of Kashmiri youth into Jamaat-e-Islami madrasas. Moves are afoot to secure arms and ammunition from sympathetic countries and wage a ‘counter-jihad’ like the Northern Alliance did against Taliban fanatics. Pro-BNF elements have also petitioned the United Nations to book Musharraf, his army cohorts and Pakistani religious parties as “war criminals” for genocide and “turning the indigenous people into a minority”.

In December 2000, BNF wrote to the Indian prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee (See letter), for assistance arguing that since the organisation had become a popular window for ventilating “anger about, and rejection of, the Pakistani occupation, we continue to be targeted and eliminated silently”.

The thirst of PoK Kashmiris for freedom is best represented by Hamid Khan’s request in that letter to have candidates of BNF and POPM (Pakistani Oppressed People’s Movement) included in the electoral rolls of Jammu and Kashmir for gaining what they have never been allowed by Pakistan – political choice.

indianguy4u · 12-26-2005, 08:43 AM

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PAKISTAN KEEPS THE BOOTY AND SHARES SOME

In retrospect one must confess that constant resort to double-think and double-speak by Pakistani propaganda mills has immense capacity to confuse. It becomes necessary to repeat therefore that Pakistan's long professed concern for the right of self-determination for the Kashmiri people is mere camouflage. The fact is that Pakistan covets the land that is Jammu and Kashmir and not its people. This becomes evident when you look back and see how blatantly Pakistan has flouted the UN Security Council resolutions it now chooses to swear by, concerning the determination of the will of the people of Kashmir. Not only did Pakistan not vacate the territories occupied by it, in disregard of the self-same resolutions, as a consequence of its first invasion of the State, it went a step further. It virtually annexed the occupied territories. It did not stop just at creating a fictitious State of Azad (POK) Kashmir; it went much further. It ceded parts of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, namely Gilgit, Skardu and Baltistan among others and redefined these as the Northern Territories administered directly by Islamabad.
When some people from POK protested against this gross violation of the State's territorial integrity they were asked to shut up. It doesn't end there. The arbitrary takeover by Pakistan of these territories was challenged in the High Court of POK and even the court felt impelled to declare Gilgit, Skardu, Baltistan etc. as part of POK. There were public protests even in these so-called territories as well as in POK but the Government in Islamabad ignored the protests as well as the court verdict.

And to think of it, the so-called Northern Territories are stretched across a 60000 km. landmass with a population of 900000. Not content with this the Pakistan Government chose to make a goodwill gesture to China by ceding another 5180 km. of the Northern Territories to it to facilitate the construction of the Karakoram highway. And China already had under its occupation another 37550 sq. kilometers of the state's territory in the region. Thus Chin a has come to occupy 42730 kilometers of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, thanks mainly to Pakistan's "generosity".

Then given the Pakistan-imposed constitution of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, the people inhabiting the area have no right to opt out of Pakistan even if they wanted to. Which means that they have no right to decide their own future, the very right which it demands for the rest of the population of Jammu and Kashmir. Besides, who is to decide for the 900,000, who, having been declared residents of Northern Territories of Pakistan, have as per the Pakistani diktat ceased to be citizens of Jammu and Kashmir. To go by the Pakistani logic they have already decided their future like their "brethren" in POK.

Contrast this with the extra-ordinary care taken by India to protect the Kashmiri identity. The founding fathers of the Indian republic, sitting as the Constituent Assembly of the Union, inserted a special provision (Article 370) in the Federal Constitution conferring special rights on the people of the State. This was in addition to the constitution which elected representatives of the Kashmiri people gave to themselves within the framework of the Indian Constitution. Minor aberrations apart, the Union of India has respected the uniqueness of Kashmir, a State of the Union which had a distinct history of its own. In the words of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (Lok Sabha, June 26, 1952): "Do not think you are dealing with a part of Uttar-Pradesh, Bihar or Gujarat. You are dealing with an area historically and geographically and in all manner of things with a certain background .... Real integration comes of the mind and heart and not of some clause which you may impose on other people."

COLONISATION OF POK

And mind you this is not something unique to the Indian federation. Take the United States of America. What stirs a Californian or a Texan may leave a New Yorker or Bostonian completely unmoved. Yet such was the concern that the Indian leadership of the day had for what is generally described as the Kashmiri identity. To retain that identity the Indian Government scrupulously honored a law (enforced by the Dogra Maharajas of the State) which forbade any non- Kashmiri, someone not born or a resident of the State, from acquiring immovable property of any kind in the State. This was done to ensure that the demographic character of the State is not altered. The law exists and is enforced even today.

Contrast this with the virtual colonization of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and also of the so-called Northern Areas of Pakistan.

It speaks well of the Indian polity that notwithstanding the odd noise made occasionally by one political party or another about the abrogation of Article 370 (conferring special rights on the State) of the Indian Constitution, the leadership of the country has stood firmly by this commitment. Initially the State's accession to the Union was limited to Defense, Foreign Affairs, Communication and applied only specified parts of the federal Constitution to the State. Other subjects and other Constitutional provisions could be extended only with the concurrence of the State Government. It's likely, though, that in some cases there may be a feeling that the concurrence was obtained without proper consultation with the State government. But that is more an exception than the rule. What's is important is that the system did by and large work to the satisfaction of the Union and the State Governments. Given India's awareness of the sensitivities of the people of Jammu and Kashmir it is not unlikely that leaders in New Delhi and those in the State have been periodically endeavoring to set the record straight by removing some discrepancies that may have crept into the Constitutional relationship between the Union and the State. That's the way democracies function, not by diktat but by mutual consultation.

The people of the State have participated in the general elections along with the rest of the country. And like in some parts of the country it must be conceded that there were some instances of malpractice . Even in mature democracies electoral malpractice do occur. But this does not mean that people should abandon the democratic process and resort to arms to seek redressal of grievances genuine or imagined.

What has Pakistan offered to the people living in the territory occupied by it except an enactment which has virtually reduced the people living there to the level of virtual serfs. Flouting the UN resolutions it now flaunts at anyone who cares to listen, the then leader of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto virtually annexed the POK with one stroke of his pen. The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Act of 1974, to repeat, declared (Article 3) Islam to be the state religion of POK, forbade activities prejudicial or detrimental to the ideology of the State's accession to Pakistan (Article 7), disqualified non-Muslims from election to the Presidency and prescribed in the oath of office the pledge "to remain loyal to the country and the cause of accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan". Then it proceeded to set up a State Council for POK named and controlled by Islamabad. And this was not a provisional regime. It was a declaration proclaiming POK as an integral part of Pakistan. It is a regime installed by Pakistan, riveted firmly to its administrative apparatus and committed to exist as one of its integral parts.

With that enactment, depriving the people of Pakistan occupied territory in Jammu and Kashmir of all their democratic rights Pakistan has forfeited the right to tom-tom its concern for people's right to self-determination.

THE COMMUNAL PERFIDY

Earlier on we had spoken of the various distinct units that form the State of Jammu and Kashmir - some predominantly Hindu, some predominantly Muslim and some predominantly Buddhist. To go by the Pakistan - ordained constitution for Pak-Occupied Kashmir, no non-Muslim has a say in determining the future of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan's sole interest thus would appear to be to somehow, by hook or by crook, get hold of the Valley, to convince itself that the two-nation theory (Muslim and Hindu) is still valid. Thus you find the Pakistanis, a half century and three wars after the partitioning of the sub- continent, seeking to further their interests by fomenting an armed insurgency. They tend to forget the fact that India has the second largest Muslim population in the world. So far as Indian Muslims are concerned they surely don't look up to Pakistan as their protector. If they have problems at home so have other segments of Indian society. Even in relation to its Muslim population - given its size, you cannot call it a minority- India has a better record than Pakistan. The atrocities being committed even today, on Muslims who migrated to Pakistan in 1947, are heart-rending. And nowhere in Pakistan is this epidemic more rampant than in Sindh, home to the founder of Pakistan, M. A. Jinnah, the present Prime Minister Ms. Benazir Bhutto and her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

Pakistani concern for the Muslim brethren in Kashmir is at best an effort to hoodwink the gullible, to confuse the Muslim world and arouse the sympathy of the do-gooders who would stake their all in the name of self-determination or human rights. Listen to this one from Qaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, just days before the dawn of independence in the sub- continent. Said he on June 17, 1947: "Constitutionally and legally the Indian (princely) States will be independent sovereign states on the termination of (British) paramountcy and they will be free to decide for themselves to adopt any course they like - accede to India or Pakistan or decide to remain independent. But this right belonged to the ruler. We do not wish to interfere with the internal affairs of any state, for that is a matter primarily to be resolved between the rulers and the peoples of the states." Not one word about the rights of the people.

SHARP CONTRAST

In sharp contrast stood the resolution passed on June 15, 1947 by the All India Congress Committee. It said: The people of the (Princely) States must have a dominating voice in any decision regarding them. Had the proposition been accepted by Jinnah all three non-acceding states then - Kashmir, Junagadh on India's western coast, and Hyderabad - would have had a plebiscite. No, Jinnah would have none of that. He sought Jodhpur's accession and accepted Junagadh's if only to harass the Indians.

Opportunity beckoned Jinnah again, six days after Kashmir's accession on October 26, 1947. Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy and Governor General, went to Lahore on November 1 and put forth a written proposal offering a plebiscite in all the three states.

Mountbatten recorded Jinnah's rejection of the idea of a plebiscite. "It was redundant and undesirable to have a plebiscite when it was quite clear that the states should go according to their majority population, and if we (India) would give him the accession of Kashmir he would offer Junagadh direct to India?"

The truth is that Jinnah was then unsure of the outcome of a plebiscite in Kashmir. He told one of the pre-eminent Pakistani leaders of the day, Mian Iftikharuddin that he wanted to keep Hyderabad as a thorn in India's side.

So, when you look back at this period of history the conclusion is obvious. Jinnah, the astute man that he was, knew that even in an ordinary opinion poll, forget a full-fledged plebiscite in Kashmir then, the result could have gone against him. What followed was a natural corollary - the attack by Pakistan on the Valley, the accession of the state to India fully backed up by its people, India complaining to the UN against Pakistani aggression, the UN Security Council and UNCIP resolution laying down the ground rules for a plebiscite, Pakistan reneging on all the commitments made by it et-al.

Two further wars and two agreements later- both committing the two countries to resolve their problems bilaterally ... Pakistan has now chosen to harp on resolutions that have lost their relevance.

As the futility of the insurgency unleashed by it becomes evident, Pakistan, predictably is becoming ever more desperate to keep the issue alive. That's how you have this sudden Pakistani concern for human rights violations in Kashmir. There have undoubtedly been, as we said before, some cases of excesses by the Indian security forces which have occurred when they faced armed militants. But action has been taken to identify and punish the offenders.

HAZRATBAL - THE LITMUS TEST

What Pakistan forgets to mention is that it is the one which has inflicted the hardships of the past four years on the Kashmiri people by sending in trained and well armed terrorists into the state. No state can countenance such brazen violation of its unity and integrity and if laymen get caught in the crossfire between the militants and the security forces they have to thank Pakistan for it.

Nothing brings out the Indian commitment to democracy and democratic values as strikingly as its handling of the seizure of Kashmir's holiest shrine Hazratbal by Pakistani-backed terrorists in 1993. It was a diabolical plan whose purpose was to tarnish India's image by trying to provoke Indian security forces to react and force their way into the Shrine. In the event the raising of a month- long cordon around the Shrine complex broke the will of the armed men inside and led them to surrender themselves to the security forces.

Here again one saw Indian democracy in action. When a group of lawyers moved the Kashmir High Court seeking food and medical attention for the terrorists inside the Shrine the court readily granted the prayer and the state administration was equally prompt in carrying out the court directive. Thus, for days on end, food was carried to the extremists and doctors allowed to get into the Shrine complex to tend to the sick who, as it turned out, were largely lay men and women and some children held captive inside by the terrorists.

Such things can happen only in living, vibrant democracies. And democracies do not have to stage plebiscites at the drop of someone else's hat just to counter baseless charges like the Indian state having let loose a reign of terror in the State. The capacity to be just and fair is the hallmark of a democracy and the inclination to be unjust makes for what Pakistan has been trying to sell all these past nearly live decades.

indianguy4u · 12-26-2005, 09:00 AM

Free Balawaristan

Free Balawaristan from Pakistani Occupation

Quote:

By Hamid Mandozai Khan 12/02/2003 At 17:28

Voices from Pakistan Occupied Balawaristan . Help us to free Balawaristan from Pakistan , visit www.balawaristan.net and learn more on the attrocities committed on our people by Pakistani ISI . Please donate for our movement .

Pakistan misadventure in Kargil has caused many a problem for the country. Some of the long-term consequences are only now beginning to unfold. Several politicians and social activities in the Kashmir valley are surprised to have received recently letters of greetings and calls for help from the leadership of the Balawaristan National Front (BNF) which has been spearheading a movement for independence in Gilgit and Baltistan (jointly called Balawaristan) in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Even at the Human Rights Conference in Geneva recently the BNF distributed memoranda alleging massive human rights violation of the Balawari people of Pakistan and calling for its independence.

Pakistan's refusal to take back the dead bodies of the Kashmiris killed just a year ago in Kargil and its eagerness to accord all military honours to the bodies of the Punjabi soldiers has given a powerful fillip to the independence movement in the region. Also, the Balawaris are greatly confused by the pictures of Indian Army and BSF jawans risking their lives to bring the bodies of the Pakistani dead soldiers and giving them a proper islamic burial followed by prayers for their salvation in the hereafter. They are confused because this completely negates all the Pakistani propaganda stories they have been told about the cruelty, if not total inhumanity of the way Indian security forces conduct themselves in Kashmir. The television pictures of these burials on Indian soil of Balawari soldiers that pakistan has refused to take remained the talk of the town in Gilgit and Baltistan for days on end and appear to have destroyed the very raison d'etre of the conflict with India in their minds.

The BNF presentation at the Geneva conference makes the following telling points, among other things :

1. Mr Khan Abdul Hamid , chairman of the BNF, sought to draw the attention of the Geneva forum towards what he described as "the fastest deteriorating human rights situation in occupied country," on behalf of two million people of Balawaristan. He said : "Our great nation is reeling under the stifling control of the Armed Forces of Pakistan and its security agencies like the ISI. Our innocent people are being treated as subjugated slaves. They have been deprived of all basic humans, economic culture and political rights for the last 52 years due to the worst colonial system imposed by Pakistan in the name of religion. As a result, our simple folks are living likes animals in this civilised world even at the draw of 21st century".

2. "In the past 52 years a number of our countrymen have been brutally killed by Pakistan forces. But ours is the only part of the world where the highest court works on the basis of the contract and where no written petition is allowed against any human rights violations."

3. "Pakistan intelligence agency ISI has been forcibly sending our innocent youth across the LOC to Indian occupied Kashmir for terrorist activities. Those who refuse to work for ISI are picked up and killed. In 1999 alone Pakistani occupation forces used our innocent people as cannon fodder against India in its Kargil misadventure . More than 400 young men of our nation lost their lives , about 1,000 were wounded and approximately 40 are still missing."

The BNF documents also provides a list of names and addresses of the "civilians who were sent by the ISI across the LOC in 1998-99" and another list of " unemployed youth who were killed by ISI and Jamaat-e-Islami near the LOC when they refused to go across for the terrorist activities."

These are serious charges and backed as they are by specific information appear to be quite credible.

Pakistan's military rulers, too , seem to be aware of the growing disenchantment of the Balawaris. This is what explains General Pervez Musharraf granting on March 4, 2000, an additional 20 crores to the development budget of the Northern areas for the current year. But it is difficult to see this announcement making any positive impact. General Musharraf is remembered in the Northern Areas is the young Brigadier of the SSG who had been chosen by General Zia-ul-Haq in May 1998 to quell the Shia insurrection in Gilgit. Musharraf has recruited several thousands of of Sunni tribals from the Afghan borders, an area he know well as he had worked with the Mujahideen before. He had also brought truckloads of tribals from the Shilas and Khoistan. He had then let these tribals loose upon the Shias . The massacre that ensured remained unparalleled in South Asia until the recent Taliban massacre of Shia Hazaras in northern Afghanistan. The Balawaris also remember Musharraf as the man who played a key role in changing the demographic composition of the area. He brought large numbers of Sunni businessmen from Punjab and the NWFP and helped them to set up business in the Northern Areas.

Pakistan was believed to have ruthlessly suppressed the BNF as it had earlier silenced the Tanzeem-e- Millat led by Johar Ali Khan. The BNF was in dog house particularly since its leader Khan Abdul Hamid has faxed his statement to the international media from Karachi a couple of years ago, virtually demanding independence. He had said then: "The people of Gilgit and Baltistan have been betrayed by pakistan and made slaves in their own land. We no longer have the rights that we had been under the Dogra rule which we struggled so hard against. We do not have political the political freedom people have either in Indian Kashmir or POK. So we want the fourth option, which is to liberate our people from all foreign occupation."

Describing the plight of the Balawaris , he had said : "We are not only deprived of fundamentals and constitutional rights but we do not have rights that animals enjoy in some countries. " India has been made the excuse , he said , "Of installing a rule by Pakistani military and civilian administration that has made us slaves in our own land.

Nothing much was heard of the movement since this outburst known officially as Northern Areas , the region comes in the news mainly when Shia-Sunni clashes takes place there. Balawaristan has a population of 2 million, about the same as POk that has been designated as "Azad Kashmir", but the people live over an area of about 28,000 square miles seven times larger than so-called Azad Kashmir. There is no local government there despite the despite solaced package deal for a kind of autonomy announced by the Pakistan government some times ago, "in an attempt", according to Khan Abdul Hammed, "to hoodwink the international community."

The suppression of human rights of the Balawaris come to international attention for the first time in 1994 when a Belgian human rights activist Ms. Claire Gale was able to visit the Northern areas along with the solaced Ad Kashmir part of the poke. "You are the first western we met since 1947," She was told by several people. "A young man told her that he was keeping his government job just by declaring that he was a member of Jamaat-e-Islami as its stand for accession of the poke to pakistan. Describing their plight to me in the Hague recently , Ms Gale who had been arrested in poke on the orders of Sandra Qayyum Khan , the then Prime Minister of "Ad Kashmir", recalled the overwhelming presence of the Army and other security forces in the region. "Entire population is alienated and Pakistani authorities to keep the people divided by fueling Siha-Sunni differences. All top positions there are held by Pakistani nationals," She added.

It is not just visiting human rights activists and local dissidents who speaks of unspeakable atrocities on the people of Balawaristan. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan too carried a special study of the situation in the Northern Areas (NA). It is monthly newsletter for January 1994 reported.

"The governments of Pakistan governs the NA through the Kashmir and Northern Areas Division (KANA). Authority behind KANA has remained vague. The executive head is the chief commissioner appointed by KANA and only answerable to it. The place is totally under bureaucratic rule. There is no industry in NA.

" The Judicial Commissioner does not have wit jurisdiction and, as the people of the NA do not have any fundamental rights , the Judicial Commissioner does not have jurisdiction to enforce them."

" The Judicial Commissioner has no say in the appointments and the transfers of subordinate court judges , which are done by the KANA division.

"The people of the NA have no say in what laws should govern them. The KANA divisions exercises the powers of the provincial government for the NA and by notification extends laws of pakistan and such amendments as its think fits to the NA. Entrusting such such absolute legislative powers to a government functionary is not without its share of hardships.

"By a notification , order 39 of the civil procedure code was amended , taking away the powers of the civil courts to grant temporary injunctions against the government meaningless. By another notification , the Speedy Trial Courts Act , 1992, was made applicable to the NA with the amendment that in appeal from the trial court, any differences of the opinion between the two judges of the Appellate court will be settled by the chairman of the court. Such arbitrary application of laws is particularly unfair because not only do the people have no forum to protest against or amend these laws, but also because the courts have no writ jurisdiction nor the people any fundamental rights. Thus such law can not be tested for their legality and reasonableness for violation of fundamental rights.

" The Northern Areas Council is headed by the minister of KANA and meets whenever called by the minister. The members can not convene a meeting. The orders require that a meeting of a council should be called every two and half months, but in practice the minister does not convene one for months. The Council in any case has no power. It can not form a government, can not legislate and has no say in the administration. It can not suggest development schemes. The main function of Councilors , as a cynic said, is receiving dignitaries from Pakistan.

"The police in the NA has no prosecution of crime branch nor a forensic laboratory. No newspaper is published within the NA. There are few local language weeklies and monthlies, but they are printed elsewhere.

"The Shia and Sunni communities in Gilgit had lived harmoniously for centuries. It is not easy to say when the trouble started, but it reached it climax in the killings of 1988. Some people suspected that the administration started it up after the political upheaval in Pakistan of 1970 and 1971 to take the minds of the people of political issues . It has even given rise to the occasional rumour that the Government itself pays the Ulema to start the clashes. With very low literacy , extreme poverty and no organised political activity, it is not surprising that the Ulema have acquired such a strong hold over the people. No judicial enquiry has been held into the clashes in 1992 and no compensation paid to the heirs of the person killed or for properties damaged ."

The Human Rights Commission Newsletter summed up the situation with the following points:

1. The people of NA have no say in whom governs them.
2. The democratic rights of the people have been tied to a cause.
3. A Pakistan civil servant legislate for the NA and influences all the executive and judicial acts.
4. Sometimes arbitrary laws are applied while important ones are not extended, according to the convenience.
5. The NA council, the highest elective body in the NA, has no legislative powers at all.
6. The Judicial commissioner and subordinate courts are not free.
7. The people have no fundamental rights whatsoever.
8. Executive acts, however arbitrary, can not be judicially reviewed.
9. The election commissioner is not independent and is vulnerable to pressures.
10. The administration has failed to control sectarian clashes due to mis-management and acquiescence to pressure."

Even a facade of separate set-up available to the so-called Azad Kashmir has been denied to Balawaristan which has been incorporated into Pakistan as a centrally-administrated tribal areas like federally administered tribal Areas (FATA) near the Afghan border. Like the FATA , too, it is governed under what is called frontier Crime Regulation (FCR) framed by the British during the colonial days for dealing with they look upon as the criminal tribes of the areas bordering Afghanistan. Under these regulations, every resident has to report to the local police station once a month and all movements from one village to another village have to be reported to the police station.

The Friday Times of October 15-21, 1992 quoted Mr Mohammad Yahya Shah, chief Convener of the Hunza-Nagar Movement , a new Shia organisation , as saying: "we were ruled by the whites during the British days, but we are now being ruled by the browns from the plains. The rapid settling-in of mostly Punjabis and Pakhtoons from outside , particularly the trading classes, has created a sense of acute insecurity among the local Shias and resulted in antagonistic perceptions between the locals and the outsiders. The genie is out of the bottle. Political reform has been abandoned in favour of extremism which the Government is abetting in order to prolong its unconstitutional militarisation. The economic and environmental plundering continues unabated . During Qasim Shah's tenure as minister of NA , the forests were denuded rapidly. In the 1988 conflict , 400,000 acres of jungle were depleted and the wood smuggled out. Marco polo sheep, an endangered species , was hunted in the hundreds by the previous corps Commander , Lt. Gen. Ali Akbar who used helicopter gun ships for his sport,"

The same issue of the Friday Times quoted Mr Muzaffar Ali, another Shia leader and general secretary of the NA Bar Association, as saying : "The Government is is instigating violence to suppress our genuine demands. In Pakistan , three Supreme Court Judges have to confirm a sessions Judge's verdict. Here things happen in total negation of legal procedures as enshrined in the constitution. A single senior judge from down country confirms a verdict functioning as an autonomous Judicial Commissioner. He is at times even junior to the local Sessions judge. The State Subject rules remained enforced in Indian Kashmir after 1947 while we blundered by getting integrated, without adequate guarantees, into Pakistan for the shake of Muslim bother hood. We have ended up without a constitution, representation, even without civil or judicial rights as are available to our Pakistani brothers." Opposing the demands of Shias for separate Karakoram Province, a group of Sunni leaders of the POK filled a petition before the POK High Court on October 16, 1990, demanding that the NA, being Kashmiri territory, should be merge with POK. Delivering the judgment on March 8, 1993, Mr Justice Abdul Majeed Mallick, Chief Justice of the POK High Court , ruled as follows:

(a) "The NA are and have been part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir as it existed before and on August 15, 1947."

(b) "The NA are the part of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and are to construed and acknowledge as such."

(c) "The detachment of the NA from the rest of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir is tantamount to the violation of the Resolutions of the Security Council of March 30, 1951 and January 24, 1957."

(d) "The state subjects residing in the NA have been deprived of the benefits of fundamental rights enshrined in the Interim Constitution during the past without lawful authority. These rights are admissible and excercisable by them."

Refusing to accept the judgment , the Government of Pakistan said in a statement issued on March 11, 1993. "The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Government has no jurisdiction over the NA, which are under the administrative control of Pakistan and historically had been administered by the Central Government . There is no question of passing on the administrative jurisdiction of the NA to the AJK Government."

Balawaristan is divided into six districts called Hunza-Nagar, Gilgit, Koh-e-Ghizer, Ghanche, Diamir and Skardu, which in turn, are grouped into three agencies or divisions call Diamir with headquarters at Chilas, Gilgit with headquarters in Gilgit Town and Baltistan with headquarters in Skardu Town. Of the total population of the NA, 50 percent are Shia s. The Ismailis , the followers of the Agha Khan, and the Sunnis constitute 25 percent each. The Sunnis are in the majority in the Diamir District and in a minority in the five districts.

Before October 1994, Balawaris had no rights of adult franchise. The territory had no elected Assembly or even municipal council and no representation in Federal Assembly. Political parties were banned. In 1994, Islamabad allowed political parties of Pakistan but not of POK, to extend their activities to the region and open branches. The Pakistan People's Party, Pakistan Muslim League, the Muttaheda Qaumi Party , an offshoot of the MQM and the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqh-e-Jafria Pakistan a Shia organisation, now have branches there.

In october 1994, party based election to a 26 member council called a NA Executive of Council were held and it was announce on March 31, 1995, that its members would have the same status, emoluments and privileges as the members of the NWFP Legislative Assembly, thereby giving it a facade of a Provincial Legislative Assembly. But in reality, the Executive Council has recommendatory powers. Five of its members have been designated as the Advisers to the Federal minister for Kashmir and Northern Areas (Pakistan) Affairs, who told the national Assembly on march 26, 1996, that the Advisers would have the same status and powers as ministers of the POK Government.

Balawaristan continues to be ruled directly from Islamabad by minister of state for Kashmir and Northern Areas (Pakistan) Affairs with the help of six officers , all non-natives , deputed from outside. These officers are the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Commissioner, the deputy Commissioner , the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Judicial Commissioner and the Chief Engineer public works . While the posts of the officers of the Pakistan Army, the other post are filled by officers taken on deputation from Punjab or the NWFP. There is no appeal against the judgments of the Judicial Commissioner. The Pakistan Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over him.

Like the FATA , the NA continues to be economically the most neglected area of Pakistan. In 1998-1999, the last year for which statistics are available, the total allocation for development works in NA amounted to Pakistani RS 3,09330 (US $1,500) according to then prevailing rate only for the population of two million. Whatever rural development has taken place has been due to the Agar Khan Foundation which has set up a number of projects for protected water supply, sanitation and health. The only medical centers are those of the Army for its personnel and other Government servants and of the Agar Khan Foundation for the locals.

Balawaristan has no University and no professional colleges. It has only two colleges and with no post-graduate facilities and 12 high schools. No University has been set up in the area. There are no daily newspapers and no radio or TV stations. The local people draw their subsistence from tourism. They used to join armed forces in large numbers , but after the death of Gen. Zia-Ul-Haq in a plane clash in August 17, 1988, in which a Shia member of the crew belonging to the Gilgit was suspected, the Pakistani armed forces have reduced recruitment from this area.

Government service is another means of livelihood, but the natives joining service resent being paid 25 percent less than non-natives from other provinces posted in the NA on deputation. This has been a source of great resentment leading to frequent strikes . Unlike the Mirpuris , the Balawaris have not even been able to migrate in large numbers to UK, the USA and other western countries and support their families from there, as they require an extra Visa which is rarely issued.

The first organisation to voice Balawari anger against Islamabad was the Tanzeem-e-Millat led by Johar Ali Khan that started operating in Gilgit in 1971 despite the ban on political activities. In 1974, it called for a strike that took a violent turn. The Gilgit scouts, a locally raised para-military unit with a history of over a hundred years refused to open fire on the agitators. The Prime Minister Z.A.Bhutto disbanded the unit , thus creating another permanent source of resentment among the locals. The injection of sectarian poison in the form of government supported Sunni organisations led to an anti-Shia carnage in May 198, which was followed by violent anti-Shia incidents in 1990,1992 and 1993, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people.

What appears to have given a powerful fillip to the movement now is the treatment meted out to the dead bodies of the jawans of the Northern Areas Light Infantry. While the Pakistan Army and government was prepared to compromise its position in accepting the bodies of Punjabi Soldiers, it left the Kashmiri soldiers to rot in Kargil. The respect shown to the dead bodies of these Pakistani Kashmiri soldiers by the Indian Army Jawans who went to great trouble to recover their bodies and give them proper Islamic burials has greatly impressed them, while at the same time creating deep resentment and anger against the Pakistani Army.

Ref: BN/4-14/1

His Excellency
Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee
Prime Minister of India
New Delhi

Sub: Reminder

Dear Sir,

I have the honour to draw your kind attention towards my earlier petition (Sub: "Include Gilgit Baltistan in J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) dialogue" dated December 18, 2000), on the subject cited above, and inform you further about the prevailing anti-people activities of Pakistan in Balawaristan (Pakistan Occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (POGB)). You may kindly recall, I represent the Balawaristan National Front (BNF) on behalf of two million people dwelling in 28,000 sq miles (44,800 sq km) of Gilgit-Baltistan. While Pakistan calls it the Northern Areas, we call it Balawaristan, which is the disputed part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Balawaristan National Front (BNF) has been struggling against the illegal occupation of Pakistan since 1992. The people of Balawaristan are deprived of all their basic human rights, political and economic rights, and are subject to incessant oppression by Pakistan. We suffer untold miseries at the hands of the Pakistan Army and its intelligence agencies, which are deployed in strength to subdue the nationalists of our area. Because the people of Balawaristan have been demonstrating their anger about, and rejection of, the Pakistani occupation, they continue to be targeted and eliminated silently. Your honour can imagine that more than 100 political leaders and workers, including me, are facing state treason charges (Pakistani section 124 A), while there is no single person who faces such charges in your part of J&K instead of their anti-India campaign on the direct instigation of Pakistan.

In the light of the abovementioned atrocities and evil designs of Pakistan, we the people of Balawaristan, do not want to become a votary of Pakistan in any way if plebiscite/referendum is held. We also request your honour to invite the nationalists of Balawaristan and POK (Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir) to participate in the J&K dialogue to strengthen the Indian stand.

We request your honour to invite the candidates of Balawaristan and POK to fill the 25 vacant seats in the J&K Assembly, which have been laying vacant for the last many years. Therefore, the elected representatives of Balawaristan and POK would represent their areas, and reveal the oppression of Pakistan before the civilised world on the one hand; on the other, India will automatically gain the favour of the people of these areas.

I also appeal to your government to deliver the orders to the concerned authority to ensure the representation of Balawaristan (POGB) and PoK in the J&K Assembly by following the Indian and J&K constitutions.

Abdul Hamid Khan
Chairman
Balawaristan National Front (BNF)

Head Off:-
Majini Mahala, Gilgit, Balawaristan
(Pakistan Occupied Gilgit Baltistan)

Why is the movement for Balawaristan not known to the world? Is the Pakistan government's suppression of political activity in Gilgit and Baltistan responsible for this?

International attention is focussed only on those political concerns that appear in the international media. Unfortunately, the international press, particularly Western press, is not bothered with a peaceful struggle. Only when a struggle turns into an armed struggle does it attract media attention. The people of Balawaristan (Pakistan Occupied Gilgit Baltistan (POGB)) believe in peaceful political struggle, and that unfortunately does not attract the attention of the world community.

Another important aspect is that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) controls the Pakistani media, and it is highly risky for the Pakistani media to give any sort of coverage to the Balawaristan freedom movement.

Thirdly, foreign journalists and human rights activists are not allowed to enter Balawaristan. If at all anybody does risk entering Balawaristan, the ISI and other agencies monitor the activities of that person very closely. All copies of a local magazine, Balawaristan Times, were confiscated and banned in 1994; the Gilgit Digest was banned in 1998; Weekly K2 was banned and its editor, Raja Hussain Khan Maqpoon, was kidnapped by the ISI from his Rawalpindi office twice, and sent to prison. Dozens of fake cases were registered against him in different courts in Balawaristan.

Finally, Balawaristan is a closed area, and Pakistan does not allow democratic activities here. I think there is no region in the world where political activists face as many sedition cases as the activists in Balawaristan do. More than a 100 political leaders and workers are facing sedition charges in Balawaristan. In spite of the extremely high level of repression, however, the world community remains unconcerned about the fate of the two million people of Balawaristan.

What is the religious affiliation and social constitution of the people of Balawaristan?

Balawaristan has a 100 per cent Muslim population. However, Pakistan follows an unstated policy of accepting only the Wahabi sect among Muslims. The religious affiliation of Balawaristan was with Afghanistan, Central Asia, Kashghar, Yarkand of China and Kashmir.

The first person to spread Islam in Balawaristan was Syed Shah Afzal of Badakhshan, Afghanistan. He entered the state of Yasen and spread Islam among the people of Yasen in 725 AD. The people of Yasen were the first to embrace Ismailia Islam in this region. Shah Salim spread Islam in Hunza in 1800-21. The people of Tangir/Darel embraced Sunni Islam after 1890. Syed Mohammad Noor Bux came to Khapoolo Baltistan in 1464, and preached the Noor Buxi Islam. Syed Ali Tusi and Syed Nasir Tusi came to Baltistan, and spread Shia Islam in 17th century. The last people of Balawaristan to embrace Sunni Islam were the people of Chilas, in 1868.

The ratio of different Islamic sects in this region is: 45 per cent Shia, 25 per cent Sunni, 20 per cent Ismailia and 10 per cent Noor Buxi. Sunnis are in majority in Dardistan (Diamar), Shia in Baltistan and Nagir, Noor Buxi in Baltistan (Ghanchhe, Khapoolo) and Ismailia in Brooshaal (Yasen, Hunza, Pooyaal, Ishkomen and Goopes). There was absolute sectarian harmony during the British rule and during the reign of the Maharaja. When Pakistan entered Balwaristan, and treacherously annexed it, a sectarian gap was created among the people of Balawaristan. Ninety per cent of the soldiers of Gilgit Scouts, who liberated Balawaristan from Maharaja, were Shia Imami Ismailia and Shia, while less than 10 per cent were Sunnis. This was also the ratio of those who participated in the Kargil War.

But as far as governmental benefits or high-ranking positions in the military, police, judiciary and other departments are concerned, the Sunnis are in a dominant position. The Sunnis hold 90 per cent of these posts, while Shias and Ismailis hold the remaining 10 per cent. Since employment opportunities and political rights are almost entirely in the hands of the Sunnis, the other Muslim sects have suffered.

The Pakistani aim has been to create sectarian rifts between our people. It ought to concern the international community that while the people of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) have been given political and economic rights, the people of Balawaristan have no such rights. One reason for this, of course, is our ethnicity, which is different from that of the PoK. Shias and Ismailis are mostly Boohoo (Yashkoon) ethnically, the Shias of Baltistan belong to the Balti stock, and the Sunnis of Dardistan (Diamar) are mostly Sheen (Dard) ethnically.

Are Pakistan's non-democratic policies based solely on religious grounds?

No, not at all. The superiority complex of the Pakistani armed forces is largely responsible for this. The Pakistani judiciary is also responsible; it has always helped the powerful military ruler, by constantly disregarding political rights. Even in a democratic government, the military plays a key role. As far as the sectarian thinking of the Pakistan Army is concerned, the soldiers are mostly of the Sunni faith, but the officers belong to the fundamentalist Wahabi sect. During late General Zia-ul-Haq's tenure, many Wahabi fundamentalists were recruited and promoted in the forces, as well as in the civil administration. That policy of General Zia has now paid off, and is very visible in the manner in which the Wahabi fundamentalists have squeezed out the moderates in Pakistan.

Do you think that POGB and PoK would have fared better, had they had been part of the Indian democracy?

Yes, of course. Our rights would have been protected, had we been part of India.

How old is the political movement in Balawaristan?

The freedom movement has been on since 1992.

Is the Indian government, or its agencies, helping your movement? Do you want the Indian government to highlight the gross violations of international humanitarian law in Gilgit Baltistan?

Unfortunately, we have received no help from the Government of India. We think there is some kind of mutual understanding between the governments of Pakistan and India to keep the people of Balawaristan deprived of all their rights. The attitude of the Indian media is worse than Pakistan's, as far as the Balawaristan cause is concerned. The Indian media highlights that PoK, which consists of 4,000 sq miles is part of J&K, and continues to neglect Balawaristan, which is seven times the size of PoK, and important in terms of both resource and strategic interests.

How is Gilgit Baltistan culturally different from PoK?

There is a huge difference in the cultures of the two regions. The culture of POGB is unique. There is some similarity with the culture of POGB and that of Ladakh/Kargil, Kashghar/Yarkand of China, Badakhshan of Afghanistan and Central Asia. The culture of PoK resembles the culture of the Punjab of Pakistan.

Historically, the cultural centre of this region was Skardu. Do you think, that Gilgit Baltistan, Kargil/Ladakh form one cultural unit, and therefore should be united and be part of the Indian Union?

Skardu was the cultural centre to the east of Balawaristan, and Gilgit and Yasen states to the northwest. The BNF stand is that all these parts are historically similar, and culturally have a strong affinity brought about by virtue of blood relations. That is why BNF demands that all these areas - including Chitral and Shenaki Kohistan (North West Frontier Province) (NWFP) occupied by Pakistan), POGB and Ladakh/Kargil (occupied by India) - should be united again. Our first priority is an independent Balawaristan, which is not part of any country. However, if the only choice open to us is to go with either India or Pakistan, we would definitely not go with Pakistan, due to the harsh experiences of the past 54 years.

How does trans-LoC (line of control) firing affect the people of Gilgit Baltistan?

The people of Baltistan and Astore, which are areas near the Indian-held J&K border, have been badly affected, due to the Indian Army's retaliation to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. About 400 families were displaced, properties worth millions were destroyed, and many innocent people lost their lives. Pakistan has armed thousands of its Wahabi terrorists, and settled them in different parts of Balawaristan, mainly in Gilgit and Baltistan. Hundreds of innocent unemployed youth of Balawaristan were deceived by the ISI, and sent to Afghanistan and Indian-held Kashmir to carry out terrorist activities. As a result, many innocent persons lost their lives, and sectarian harmony is also disturbed.

How many terrorist training camps has Pakistan established in Gilgit Baltistan?

There are many camps throughout Balawaristan. Tangir and Darel in Dardistan district (formerly Diamar), Astore, Darul-Uloom, Juglote (Brooshaal district), Gilgit, Madrassa Nusratul-Islam, Konodas, Skardu city, and Ghowadi village near Skardu are the main terrorist training camps established and monitored by the ISI. Besides, there is a big camp near Mansehra of NWFP on the Karakorum Highway (KKH), from where the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, Kashmiri, Pakistani and other terrorists are deputed to different parts of POGB, PoK and across the borders to Afghanistan and Indian-held Kashmir (IHK). It is interesting to note that approximately 12,000 Kalashnikovs have been stored in Skardu city for terrorism, 64 double-door pick-ups are used to supply weapons for Baltistan alone. In fact, the ISI has turned the whole region into a military depot, which could explode anytime.

Is there any legislature or council of elected representatives in Gilgit Baltistan?

These terms exist only on paper, and Pakistanis use fraudulent institutions to misguide the world community. The Pakistanis have set up a Northern Areas Legislative Council (NALC). Allow me to quote the Pakistani Supreme Court regarding the powers of this so-called "council" in its verdict on May 12,

1999, petition No. 11/94, filed by some Pakistani agents through an ISI-sponsored trust, the Al-Jihad Trust. (It is important to remember that the US Federal Intelligence agencies have singled out the Al-Jihad Trust as one of the main financiers of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.)

This was the ISI's attempt to counter the freedom struggle of the BNF. The Supreme Court said, "We allow the above petitions, and direct the respondent federation as under: To initiate appropriate administrative and legislative measures within a period of six months from today to make necessary amendments in the constitution, and the relevant statute/statutes/order/orders/rules/notification/ notifications, to ensure that the people of Northern Areas (Gilgit Baltistan) enjoy their above fundamental rights, namely, to be governed through their chosen representatives, and to have access to justice through an independent judiciary, inter alia for enforcement of their fundamental rights guaranteed under the constitution."

Did the Pakistani government adhere to the Court order?

Even three years after this judgment was pronounced, the people of POGB are yet to set up a representative council to consider and debate the political, social, and economic development issues of this region. Our human rights, and lack of access to judicial remedy, continue to remain unprotected. I would like to quote some unanimous resolutions adopted by the NALC in its sessions held in Gilgit:

· A resolution was passed in the fourth session of the NACL, in its 18-23 September, 2000 session, for approval of the procedure and conduct of business rules 2000, and submitted to the personal secretary (PS) of the chief executive (CE). The CE is a Pathan from NWFP imposed by Pakistan as minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas Affairs (KANA). There was no response.

· There was a proposal for renaming the Basha Dam as Diamar Dam, and construction of a substitute road for the affected people of the Karakorum Highway. This was passed during the November 2000 session, and submitted to the PS to the CE. Action on the resolution is still awaited.

· Grant of royalty to Balawaristan instead NWFP. No response.

· Grant of compensation to the people displaced before construction of the dam. No response.

· Right of self-rule in the light of Supreme Court of Pakistan judgment, dated May 28, 1999, submitted to PS of CE. No response.

· Abolition of Supreme Judicial Council comprising of bureaucrats to ensure independent judiciary. No response.

· Bringing the Chief Court of Gilgit Baltistan at par with the High Court. No response from Pakistan.

· The question of grant of compensation, to those affected by border firing in Qamari and Minimarg districts of Diamar, was raised during the November 2000 session. No action was taken.

· A resolution on taking up development activities through the NACL, instead of Pakistan-imposed bureaucrats was adopted. Action on this is still awaited.

· A proposal for inclusion of development schemes in the annual development programme (ADP), until such time that the people of Balawaristan are granted legal and democratic rights, was adopted. No response.

· On November 20, 2000, the NACL passed a unanimous resolution, and demanded that the reign of their motherland be handed over to them. At present, it is in the hands of a Pakistani, who is imposed as chief executive of the NACL in a patently undemocratic manner. The result of this demand was that NACL members were banned from entering any government offices.

How is this region administered by Pakistan?

The KANA Division is the sole administrative authority. It enjoys autocratic powers, and no concurrent responsibilities. KANA has set up its administration in Balawaristan, where all appointments - from the peon to the highest-grade employees - are made from Pakistan, more specifically, from its NWFP province. Drugs and arms smugglers have also found a position in this a