Kashmir, again?

Kashmir, again?
The Jakarta Post 23rd August 2010
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/08/23/letter-kashmir-again.html

This refers to the article by Laura Schuurmans (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 12, p. 7). I wonder if she is in sync with the reality in Kashmir.
The subject of Kashmir routinely pops up in the Post and is discussed overenthusiastically by the Jakarta expat community ad infinatum/ad nauseum, and there is generally nothing new to add on either side!
So let me borrow from a study by London’s Kings College scholar Robert Bradrock, (Kashmir: Paths to Peace Opinion Poll, http://tinyurl.com/2bsxhkc). It involved interviews of 3,774 people in both parts of Kashmir during September/October 2009 for Chatham House, home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and a world-leading institute for the debate and analysis of international issues. Its conclusions surprised me!
I quote from this 39-page report regarding conclusions on page 35.
“Despite the complexity, some conclusions are clear. 81% say unemployment is the most significant problem facing Kashmiris [66% in PoK*, 87% in J&K]. Government corruption [22% PoK* and 68% J&K], poor economic development [42% PoK*, 45% J&K], human rights abuses [19% PoK*, 43% J&K] and the Kashmir conflict itself [24% PoK*, 36% J&K] are all seen as major problems. 80% of Kashmiris say that the dispute is very important to them personally.
The two questions envisaged under the UN resolutions of 1948/1949, which proposed a plebiscite, were restricted to the choice of the whole of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir joining India or joining Pakistan. This poll shows that preference for those options is highly polarized. 21% of the population said they would vote for the whole of Kashmir to join India, and 15% said they would vote for it to join Pakistan. Furthermore, only 1% of the population in PoK* say they would vote to join India, while only 2% of the population in J&K say they would vote to join Pakistan. There is further polarization between the districts.
The option of independence has been widely promoted on both sides of the LoC over the last twenty years. However, although 43% of the total population said they would vote for independence, in only five out of eighteen districts was there a majority preference for the independence of the whole of Kashmir.” (The original report refers to PoK as AJK!)
These results support the already widespread view that the plebiscite options are likely to offer no solution to the dispute.
One very important aspect of the UN resolutions which calls for a plebiscite in J&K and neither stressed by Pakistan nor highlighted by India is that the same resolution calls for a complete withdrawal of Pakistani troops from PoK as a mandatory pre-condition for holding plebiscite in J&K, thereby implying that Pakistan was the aggressor. (http://tinyurl.com/32ua68b or www.kashmir-information.com/historicaldocuments/112.html)
However, holding the plebiscite has been rendered further difficult due to eviction under duress of the Hindu population from the valley. This eviction under duress scattered Hindus all over India and the world, thus expunging their availability to vote in a plebiscite, if and when it is held.
But, the UN resolution of 1948/1949 has been superseded by the Shimla Agreement signed in July 1972 by the late Z.A. Bhutto (then president of Pakistan) and the late Indira Gandhi (then PM of India).
So it has only academic value now.
K.B. Kale, Jakarta
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Post Comments | Comments (2)
K B Kale, Jakarta (currently) | Sat, 28/08/2010 - 12:08pm
Dear Mr Mohammed Jalaluddin,
Thank you so much! If you had not drawn my attention to your comment, I would have missed it! You literally made my day!!
Needless to say I am very happy to read your comments. For us in Maharashtra where I come from, Kashmir is a far-off place and we look at it as a matter of national honour, a place where Pakistan is playing its dirty tricks and (most important) a place more beautiful than heaven itself. Though I am not fortunate enough to have visited it so far, we have seen its beauty in hundreds of Bollywood Hindi movies.
I enclose herewith for your study some links as follows:
(1) http://tinyurl.com/2crgfrj (Read both 'article' and 'comments')
(2) http://tinyurl.com/28457tv (Musharraf admitting that terrorism in India was Pakistani creation)
(3) http://tinyurl.com/2cgmln6 & http://tinyurl.com/2veepwg (Sushma Swaraj's dialogue with Kashmiri students)
(4) I am very happy with Star Plus (do you watch their "Chhote Ustad?) who have invited Pakistani children and their parents to Mumbai and Sonu Nigam (India) and Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan(Pakistan) preside as "experts'! I think it is a very well-thought idea because if Pakistani kids of 8-10 years of age realise how they are liked and loved in India and their parents also see this warmth, the effect of deliberate misleading information from Pakistani government will be nullified.
I also request you to read the full 39-page report referred to by me.
If I ever come to J&K, I would love to meet you and your friends.
Please let me know your e-mail ID so that I can keep in touch.
Jai Hind!
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Mohammed Jalaluddin, Jammu, India | Thu, 26/08/2010 - 12:08pm

Please read my comments to Laura S's article of August 12.
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(I give below the comments of Mr Mohammed Jalaluddin of Jammu & Syed Ahmed of Mumbai)

Mohammed Jalaluddin, Jammu, India | Thu, 26/08/2010 - 10:08am
First of all, it is clear that the author Laura S is just pretending to be knowledgeable about events and history in South Asia. But unfortunately, her knowledge about the subcontinent is absolutely shallow. She probably is on the paroll of ISI, and Jakarta Post should be careful in publishing articles from her, as inadvertently it should not give encouragement to Taliban mentality and jehadism. Dawood Gilani, the top LET terrorist apprehended by FBI in the USA has given a lot of confessions in which he has informed that ISI and LET (and Al Quaida) are inseparable, as you see the same people at both the places, when you visit the ISI office or visit a Taliban training camp! He also informed the interrogators that the LET was given 25000 USD by the ISI to buy a boat to sail the Mumbai terrorists from Pakistan to India, which killed 175 people including dozens of innocent Muslims at a Mumbai railway station and other places in 2008. He also informed that these terrorists were given marine commando training at Pakistan Navy training facilities by the ISI. Recent revelations about ISI hand in troubles in Afghanistan and other places in leaked CIA soca should also be taken into consideration. It is known fact that Osama is very much in the safe custody of ISI all the time since he fled Kabul. Jakarta Post should be careful about publishing articles by Jehadi activists supporters like the author Laura S.
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Mohammed Jalaluddin, Jammu, India | Thu, 26/08/2010 - 10:08am
Pakistan hasn't been given a contract by the world's Muslims to represent them, nor should it assume that it is the sole Representative of the Muslim voice. The nuclear weapons it has got (from stolen technology from West and gifted by China) does not give it a right to talk on behalf of all Muslims of the world, and certainly not on behalf of Muslims of India. We Muslims of India are WAY better than the terribly suffering Muslims of Pakistan, where Muslims are killed like ants in Mosques and roads by suicide bombers and jehadists. Today Pakistan has become an epicenter of terrorism and the only contribution it is making now to the world is terrorism. Pakistan because of it's obsession with my State of J & K, has relentlessly encouraged jehad as an instrument of state policy against India, Afghanistan and Shia Iran. Pakistan's such policies are solely responsible for the tarnished image of The great religion of Islam in the world. Because of Pakistanis, Muslims world over are looked at with suspicion. It should stop meddling in J & K. We Kashmiris will never join Pakistan, as were better off where we are now. In India we are safe, we are not bombed by Taliban while praying, we get all the benefits of economic progress of India, our religious rights are protected by the constitution. We elect our own government (whereas, during most of it's history, Pakistan was ruled by military tyrants). There is absolutely no discrimination against Muslims. There were two Muslim Presidents in India, the current Vice-president of India is a Muslim, there were Muslims who captained Indian cricket teams, one of the top three IT companies' owner is a Muslim, who is one of the richest persons of India, top artists and film-stars are Muslims, Indian Airforce chief was a Muslim, Muslims were Supreme Court judges, thus Muslims are equal partners in every aspect. Therefore, Pakistan, you stop meddling in our country...your country will be the last country on earth that we will join if ever we decide to secede from India.
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Syed Ahmed, Mumbai, india | Thu, 26/08/2010 - 11:08am
I fully agree with Md Jalaluddin for both of his comments. Laura Schuurmans is highly biased in her views and there is a definite hidden agenda in her article. Pakistani secret service agency ISI has many Agents like her whose only job is to spread disinformation and distort the facts to highlight the Kashmir issue and try to draw the attention of the world for it's cause. Also, Pakistani Military officers are dreaming about bombing And annihilating India with it's Islamic atom bombs. In the process it is forgetting that the Islamic bomb will not spare Muslims like me and they forget that India is home to the second largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia. Mumbai alone has two million Muslims, which Pakistanis have no qualms in annihilating. And they claim they are custodians of Muslim causes world over. What you sow is what you reap. Hatred begets hatred. It is the sins that the Pakistanis that have committed during the last six decades, which has resulted in suicide bombings, death, destruction, economic bankruptcy, social decay, fratricidal wars in Muslims killing Muslims. Pakistanis today can not survive without alms from other countries and their leaders visit every other Country with a begging bowl. Whereas Muslims in India are going from strength to strength, enjoying fruits of the economic success of the rising economic super power! And Pakistan today suffers from floods, eArthquakes, disasters after disasters...all are curses of Allah for their sins. Pakistan has no future...will break into smaller states, will be taken by the Taliban into the stone age and could get destroyed because of jehadi misadventures. I don't think any sane Kashmiri Muslim would like to join Pakistan!
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