Pakistan's Record in Kashmir
  • 1947: On 22 October, thousands of Pathan tribesmen from Pakistan, recruited by the Poonch rebels, invade Kashmir along with the Poonch rebels. The tribesmen engage in looting and killing along the way. The tribesmen and the Poonch rebels are unofficially supported by various individuals and high ranking officials in Pakistan Government(including Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan and Chief Minister of North West Frontier Province) and Pakistan Army(middle-level officers like Colonel Akbar Khan who becomes Major-General after the period in question). India accuses Pakistan of violating the Standstill Agreement with Kashmir by disrupting the supply links and of engaging in aggression by sending in the tribesmen. Pakistan refutes the charges.

    The Maharaja of the State of Jammu and Kashmir signs the Instrument of Accession (IOA) on 26 October, acceding the 75% majority Muslim region to the Indian Union, following invasion by the tribesmen from Pakistan; Pakistan disputes that the accession is illegal and sends regular forces to Kashmir and the first war over Kashmir breaks out. On 1 January 1949, a ceasefire between Indian and Pakistani forces leaves Pakistan in control of part of Kashmir including what Pakistan calls "Azad" Kashmir and Northern territories while India terms the territory as POK.

    Junagadh has a Hindu majority ruled by a Muslim Ruler who accedes to Pakistan; Pakistan applies double standards by having divergent positions on Kashmir and Junagadh, insisting on a plebiscite in the former while insisting on the absolute right of the Ruler to accede to Pakistan in the latter.

  • 1965: Pakistan takes advantage of the discontent in the Kashmir Valley and sends in a few thousand armed Pakistani infiltrators across the cease-fire line in August and incidents of violence increase in Kashmir Valley; Code-named "Operation Gibraltar", one can see evidence of official Pakistani policy at work here; A full Indo-Pakistani war breaks out which ends in a ceasefire on 23 September. Pakistan supported guerrilla groups in Kashmir increase their activities after the ceasefire.
  • 1979: The USSR invades Afghanistan. The US and Pakistan are involved in training, recruiting, arming, and unleashing the Mujahedin on Afghanistan. The mujahedin so recruited would take on their own agenda of establishing Islamic rule in Kashmir from the late 1980's.

  • 1989: The insurgency in the Valley gains momentum, given the consistent failure of democracy and limited employment opportunities; End of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan releases a great deal of militant energy and weapons to Kashmir. Pakistan provides arms and training to both indigenous and foreign militants in Kashmir, thus adding fuel to the smouldering fire of discontent in the valley.
    Human Rights Watch, Arms Pipeline, 1994.

    ISI (Inter Services Intelligence: Pakistan's secret service) favours the pro-Pakistan militant group Hizb-ul-Mujahedin over the secular JKLF and cuts off financing to the JKLF and in some instances provides intelligence to India against JKLF; In April 1991, kashmiris hold anti-Pakistan demonstrations in Srinagar following killing of a JKLF area commander by the Hizb; In 1992, Pakistan forces arrest 500 JKLF marchers in POK to prevent bid to cross the border;

  • In May 1999, the Indian Army patrols detect intruders from Pakistan on Kargil ridges in Kashmir. India fights to regain lost territory.

    Pakistan considers Kashmir as a disputed territory and continues to insist on the implementation of a plebiscite as per UN resolutions. The evolving consensus opinion however is that UN resolutions are out-dated, since the dispute has evolved into tripartite; that other solutions like regional autonomy and independence should be considered given that various regions in Kashmir have evolved independently since 1947 and that the conflict is restricted to the Kashmir Valley whose area is less than 16% of the total area of Indian controlled J&K. However Pakistan is resistant to the independence option;

    Pakistan continues to control Azad Kashmir and Northern Territories in a repressive manner.

    While Pakistan's claim that it is only providing moral and diplomatic support for an indigenous freedom struggle in Kashmir Valley, similar to India's support for the freedom struggle in East Pakistan in 1971, may be true to some extent, it is equally true that Pakistan is arming and training foreign militants besides indigenous militants. The JKLF admitted in a press release in 1990 that ISI had financed the operations of the JKLF and the Hizb. In November 1995, a BBC documentary programme showed evidence of camps in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan, supported by the Jamaat-i-Islami (political wing of the Hizb), where fighters were trained and openly professed their intention of fighting in Kashmir.

  • Detailed version of the Kashmir Chronology (in draft)