Yes, Kashmir
is a Paradise Lost for Pakistan. Pakistan lost opportunities to reclaim the Indian
Occupied Jammu and Kashmir not once, not twice, but three times at different
occasion from 1947 to 1999.
First, the
all-out invasion of Kashmir that started on 22 October 1947 by the raiders’
column, consisting of two to three hundred lorries full of frontier tribesmen
of about five thousand—Afridis, Wazirs, Mahsuds, Swathis, and soldiers of the
Pakistan Army ‘on leave’—advanced from Abbottabad in the NWFP along the Jhelum
Valley Road was lost. The raiders marched towards Baramula along the road
leading to Srinagar; continued their advance and captured the Mathura Power
House, and plunged Srinagar in darkness. They paused here without valid
reasons, resulting in losing the prime opportunity of taking the Valley of
Kashmir and Srinagar (Encyclopedia Wikipedia).
“By pausing to sack the convent
in the little city of Baramullah, only 30 miles from Srinagar, when they should
have been driving on the capital of Kashmir and its vital airfield, the Pathan
raiders would stop here. All day on Monday, 27 October, while the First Sikhs
secured their fragile hold on Kashmir’s only airport, the Pathans in Baramullah
were giving vent to their ancient appetites for rape and pillage of the Convent
of Mary. They violated the nuns,
massacred the patients in their little clinic, looted the convent chapel down
to its last brass door-knob… They had given the soldiers of Jawaharlal Nehru
the critical hours they needed to istall themselves in the Vale of Kashmir.”
Says Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins in their “Freedom at Midnight”,
published New Delhi, 1997, page 449.
“On the
evening of 24 Oct. the Government of India had received a desperate appeal for
help from the Maharajah. On Oct. 25 a meeting of the Defense Committee of Govt.
of India was held, presided by Lord Mountbatten. India hurriedly airlifted their
soldiers and fighting hardware to Srinagar airport consequent upon signing the
Instrument of Accession to the Indian Union on 26 Oct. 1947. The Indian army
suppressed the inroads of invading Pathans.
Second, Communist China had never accepted the British-negotiated
boundary agreements in north-eastern Kashmir. After Chinese authority was
established in Tibet and reasserted in Xinjiang, Chinese forces penetrated into
the northeastern parts of Ladakh. By 1956–57 they had completed a military road
through the Aksai-Chin area to provide better
communication between Xinjiang and western Tibet. India's belated discovery of
this road led to border clashes between the two countries that culminated in
the Sino-Indian war of October 1962. China has occupied the northeastern part
of Ladakh since the conflict. (Encyclopedia Britannica).
Qudratullah
Shahab describes in detail the story of the Sino-Indian war in his celebrated
book, “Shahab Nama” published in Urdu at Lahore,1987-1989 editions (pp.
917-919). Following is the English translation, done by the author of this
article:
“It was
probably the night of 20th of Oct. 1962 that I was sleeping in my
home at Harley Street Rawalpindi. Unexpectedly, I heard sound of a car entering
my home compound at about 2.30 AM in the night. My home servant informed me
that a Chinese man wanted to see me then and there. The Chinese had visited
Pakistan to learn Urdu language and I had seen him before at many occasions. He
told me that India’s persistent attacks on Chinese borders had compelled China
to repel Indian attacks. Chinese troops had been advancing inside Indian
borders in its retaliatory attacks. He had come at this odd hour just to inform
me. I asked him “Did you inform this to our External Affairs?” He smiled and
said, “We think President Ayub might find some interest and importance in this
news, and we think that you might be the right source for conveying this
information to him. That’s why I wake you up at this odd hour. This is my
personal initiative. This is not a message from Foreign office.”
Mr.
Shahab further writes in his memoire, “I think by waking me up at mid-night the
Chinese was conveying his message that while the Indian forces are in panic and
leaving their posts retreating, this is utmost important for Pakistan to avail
this chance without losing this precious opportunity.
“I
hurriedly changed my dresses, took my car and reached at President House. It
was about 3.00 AM when I got access to President Ayub’s bedroom. I informed him
all of my talks with the Chinese. Instantly, the President told me, “This is
not an unexpected news, but what’s the objective of the Chinese to let us know
this news at this hour of the night? I
told him that the Chinese objectives of informing us about this battle could
not be else than Pakistan can use this opportunity for its own benefits.
“For example?”
the President asked me. I explained him that if our forces are made to advance
into Kashmir through the Chinese occupied border in Ladakh, then ……” President
Ayub, abruptly, cut me in the middle of my speech and said, “You civilians
think the fighting forces deployment like a child’s play. Go and rest. I’m also
sleepy.”
“I consider
even now that President Ayub lost a God-given opportunity of his lifetime and
of his presidentship” Shahab expressed
his views in his book.
This
episode was second time that Pakistan lost the opportunity to reclaim the
occupied Jammu and Valley of Kashmir.
Third is the Kargil
War, also known as the Kargil
conflict. It was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place at high altitude between May and July
1999 in the Kargil
district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line
of Control (LoC).
Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri
militants had made their positions firm into the Indian side of the LoC, which
serves as the de facto border between the two states. They
infiltrated the LoC without any chain of support from back. The Indian Army, later on supported by the Indian Air Force, recaptured a
majority of the positions on the Indian side of the LoC. With international
diplomatic opposition, the Pakistani forces withdrew from the remaining Indian
positions along the LoC. Hostilities finally ended when Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan gave his assurance that the infiltrators would
retreat.
Dear
Readers, let’s see why the world tolerated the Chinese occupation of a big
chunk of mountainous land in Ladakh while it made a hue and cry on occupation
of a piece of land in Kargil by Pakistan?
Let Pakistan first make its muscle worthy of fighting for justice like
China.
ISRAR
HASAN
30 APRIL
2015
ihasanfaq@yahoo.com
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