Indian machinations vis-à-vis Gilgit-Baltistan

Calculated moves being made by Modi’s government to thwart progress on CPEC

Ever since the advent of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), India has woken up to stir trouble in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). When the Karakoram Highway (KKH), also known as the Friendship Highway in China, was being built by the governments of Pakistan and China from 1959 to 1979, India remained oblivious to the development. On 30 June 2006, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Pakistani National Highway Authority (NHA) and China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) to rebuild and upgrade the KKH and expand its width from 10 to 30 meters (33 to 98 ft), and enhance its transport capacity three-fold as well as accommodate heavy-laden vehicles and extreme weather conditions. The first murmurs of dissent were heard in 2009 at the presence of Chinese engineers and workers at the reconstruction site on KKH.

In June 2014, after Narendra Modi was installed as Prime Minister, his odious designs regarding Kashmir, (Indian Occupied & Azad Jammu Kashmir) and Gilgit-Baltistan started becoming ominous. Modi, a still active RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) operative and rabid anti-Muslim Hindutva activist is following an agenda of subjugating Pakistan and amalgamating the whole of Kashmir including Gilgit-Baltistan. He tried to rig the elections in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) so that the BJP government would help repeal Article 370, which grants special powers to IOK under the Indian Constitution and thus pave the way for its integration into India.

Modi is also changing the demography of IOK and resettling Hindus there to offset the Muslim majority. He is fomenting trouble in Azad Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan to spew venom against Pakistan and soften the territory for Indian occupation or win their favour for accession to India in case a plebiscite does take place. Plotting the separation of Balochistan is a corollary to the entire heinous stratagem to vanquish Pakistan.  

Gilgit-Baltistan, formerly known as the Northern Areas, is the northernmost administrative territory in Pakistan. It borders Azad Kashmir to the south, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the north, the Xinjiang province of China, to the east and northeast, and IOK to the southeast.

Gilgit-Baltistan is part of the Kashmir region that is disputed by India and Pakistan, along with Azad Kashmir and Jammu, Ladakh, and the Valley of Kashmir. ‘Gilgit Wazarat’ as it was earlier known as, was administered by the Dogra Rajas of Jammu and Kashmir because the British leased it to them in 1935 for a period of 60 years.

It is ironic that when the Dogra Maharaja Hari Singh was forcibly made to sign the letter of accession of Kashmir to India on 26 October 1947, Gilgit-Baltistan, not wishing to be a part of IOK, declared independence. A local Gilgiti commander Colonel Mirza Hassan Khan overthrew the Dogra-appointed Governor with the help of Major Brown, commandant of the Gilgit Scouts on 1st November, 1947 and announced the promulgation of the Republic of Gilgit with Shah Saeed Khan as President but this arrangement only survived 16 days. 

Finally, the Gilgitis approached Mohammad Ali Jinnah and requested his permission to join the Pakistan federation unconditionally; he accepted the offer and sent his nominee Sardar Alam Khan to manage the administration. Ostensibly, since the founder and ruler of Pakistan accepted the people of Gilgit-Baltistan as Pakistani, GB became a sovereign region of Pakistan on that very same day.

Kashmir War (1947-48) and the subsequent UN Resolutions ordaining the people of Kashmir to exercise their option of acceding either to Pakistan or India through an UN sponsored plebiscite affected the fate of GB also. At that stage, Pakistan, tethered Gilgit-Baltistan to Azad Kashmir, hoping to swell up the numbers in the prospective plebiscite in favour of Pakistan, despite GB having joined the federation of Pakistan.

The wheels of fortune changed again. In 1950, India accepted GB being a part of Pakistan in accordance with the Dixon proposals for the allotment to Pakistan of those areas, where there was no apparent doubt about the wishes of the people aligned.

In 1970 Gilgit-Baltistan became a separate administrative unit under the name “Northern Areas”. On 29 August 2009, the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order 2009, was approved granting self-rule to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, by creating an elected Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly and Gilgit-Baltistan Council. GB thus gained a de facto province-like status without constitutionally becoming part of Pakistan.

Despite having accepted GB as part of Pakistan, India changed its track and started reclaiming it to be a part of India. Vikas Swarup, Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman, declared: “India’s position is well known. The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, which includes the regions of Gilgit and Baltistan, is an integral part of India.” The same was reiterated in a slightly different narrative. During a 2015 address to Border Security Forces (BSF) officers, Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval claimed “we also have a 106-km-long non-contiguous border with Afghanistan (Wakhan corridor) that we need to factor in.”

As GB became vectored in Indian conspiracies not just to sabotage CPEC but also to gain leverage in Afghanistan, the narrative changed to GB being a disputed territory. Narendra Modi raised the issue with China of CPEC passing through disputed territory, thus its construction being illegal. He urged China to discontinue the mega project. President Xi Jinping refuted the flimsy excuse stating that CPEC was a development project and not a strategic or military one. Its advent will benefit the people of GB along with others in the region.

U.S., which is now India’s strategic ally and wants Modi to play a role in Afghanistan to keep the Chinese at bay, also echoed the same narrative. Both U.S. Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have parroted the Indian objection to CPEC. India never objected to the construction of KKH, nor did the U.S. have any qualms about the status of GB when constructing the Mangla and Tarbela Dams. The U.S. also remains oblivious to Indian atrocities in Indian Occupied Kashmir.

It is imperative to expose the nefarious Indian designs vis-à-vis Gilgit-Baltistan as well as insulate the people of GB from Indian propaganda. Clandestine Indian radio broadcasts target the residents of GB with propaganda to poison the minds of local listeners. Venomous websites have sprung up spewing vitriolic messages to incite the residents of GB to denigrate CPEC and the government of Pakistan. This scribe has been invited to numerous talk shows on Indian TV channels, where there are fake residents of GB along with Indian analysts disparaging Pakistan. Indian RAW agents posing as journalists freely roam GB and present defaming videos to support the heinous Indian agenda. To ensure the successful completion of CPEC, government, media and the law enforcing agencies of Pakistan need to take cognizance of the threat.