Kashmir: LoC

After that first partition, there has been again partition of Kashmir. At one time, our late Prime Minister Pandit Nehru had even expressed his willingness to offer the Pakistan-occupied part of Kashmir to Pakistan in a bid to ‘solve’ the so-called Kashmir problem. Even the Shimla Agreement, signed between Indira Gandhi Prime Minister of India and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, on July 2, 1972 stipulated that present LoC is the line of permanent peace. The USA and European communities also backed it. But after Z.A. Bhutto, successive rulers have created tension in the subcontinent by sponsoring terrorism. They are thus violating the Shimla pact and defying the LoC. The Lahore Declaration 1999 had some interesting ideas in this respect (e.g. the institution of a nuclear risk reduction mechanism, basically from the Indian side, and these should be implemented via formal agreements and operational systems. Acceptance of LoC as international border in Jammu and Kashmir, as the permanent dividing line between India and Pakistan it would be suicidal. Pakistan occupied Kashmir is the part of Jammu and Kashmir, a state of India. It is India’s integral unit and forcibly occupied by Pakistan in 1947 after independence. Kashmir problem is the lethal combination of Islamic fundamentalism and Pakistan’s political adventurism. Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of partition, and outcome of two-nation theory. More than half a century has passed when Kashmir problem cropped up. Four wars have also been fought but the Pakistan occupied portion of Kashmir has not been retrieved by India. LoC is nothing more than the cease-fire line agreed to by Prime Minister Nehru in 1949, when he committed the monumental blunder of stopping the Indian army when it was on its way to evicting the Pakistanis from what is now Pakistan occupied Kashmir. From cradle to grave man has to face problem in life. Someone his own creation and some are attributed to the creator. Kashmir problem is the creation of man—the leaders—an outcome of their pride, prejudices, ego and false notions. Many international powers believe that making the LoC an international boundary, with minor changes, would be the best solution the Kashmir problem. LoC is not the cease-fire line agreed between two sovereign nations, but the line of containment of terrorism, which Pakistani terrorists are constantly trying to breach. LoC should no longer be seen as a historic cease-fire line that the terrorists feel free to violate, but a strategically defensible barrier. The terms of independence were such that perhaps, without accepting partition, some believe that independence would not have come. Division is over, but its scars are still hurting the body politic of both countries. Realistically enough, neither India nor Pakistan can destroy the other. The utmost they can do is to inflict serious injuries on each other in the state of war. Geography, defence, economic development and the welfare of the people demand that they should come together and live like brothers as before, as one country. Kashmir problem is the outcome of partition of the country, which took place on August 14-15-1947 and solution to the problems lies in annulment of the partition. The Kashmir and other basic problems confronting Indian peninsula namely, population, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment etc. can be successfully tackled unitedly, by unification of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh." (jacket)