The Londoner

By Jawed Naqvi  The creation of Pakistan from the Indian subcontinent was not inevitable. It happened despite several attempts to avert its formation, including efforts by the Muslim League. Former Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh has given a compelling account in his book of the Congress party’s arrogance and culpability in forcing Jinnah to say enough is enough. By the same token, the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan was not a pre-determined fact. Islamabad’s grievous mishandling of the situation led to a truncated Pakistan. The same argument could apply to Kashmir. It is of course not surprising that the Indian middle class, led by its Murdochian TV channels, advocates military force to tame Kashmir’s anti-India upsurge in the way Gen Yahya Khan unleashed military terror in East Pakistan. However, somewhat hypocritically while it celebrates India’s military intervention, which led to the creation of Bangladesh, when it comes to Kashmir the Indian middle clas

Related Posts:  1.  Voices From Kashmir 2.  According To Syed Ali Shah Geelani There Is Only One Kashmir Solution - Merger With Pakistan 3. Why Pakistan China Nuclear Deal Is Important For Future Prosperity Of Pakistan? 4. Kashmir - When Will The Dance Of Death End? 5. The Killing Fields of Kashmir – Indian Brutality Cannot Extinguish The Flame Of Azadi (Freedom) 6. Why Kashmir Needs A Political Solution - India Killing Innocent Street Protesters To Prove Her Claim As The Land Of Liberty & Human Rights 7. Azad Kashmir - Is China Taking Extra Interest In Kashmir? 8. Umar Abdullah Interview on Disputed Jammu & Kashmir 9. Local people welcomes China's visa policy on Kashmir 10. Gilgit Baltistan - A Province Of Pakistan

Part 1  Part 2 Part 3  Related Posts:  1.  According To Syed Ali Shah Geelani There Is Only One Kashmir Solution - Merger With Pakistan 2. Has India Already Lost Kashmir? 3. Kashmir - When Will The Dance Of Death End? 4. Why Kashmir Needs A Political Solution - India Killing Innocent Street Protesters To Prove Her Claim As The Land Of Liberty & Human Rights 5. Indian Occupation Of Kashmir - An Unfinished Business 6. Azad Kashmir - Is China Taking Extra Interest In Kashmir? 7. Umar Abdullah Interview on Disputed Jammu & Kashmir 8. Kashmir - The Elephant In The Room 9. Is Kashmir key to Afghan peace? ------- Barack Obama says resolving the Indian-Pakistani dispute over Kashmir will be a goal of his presidency 10. Almost Gandhian: Kashmir's new, silent rage against Inidia's brutal occupation

Related Posts:  1.  Has India Already Lost Kashmir? 2. Kashmir - When Will The Dance Of Death End? 3. The Killing Fields of Kashmir – Indian Brutality Cannot Extinguish The Flame Of Azadi (Freedom) 4. Azad Kashmir - Is China Taking Extra Interest In Kashmir? 5. Why Kashmir Needs A Political Solution - India Killing Innocent Street Protesters To Prove Her Claim As The Land Of Liberty & Human Rights 6.  Is Kashmir key to Afghan peace? ------- Barack Obama says resolving the Indian-Pakistani dispute over Kashmir will be a goal of his presidency 7.  Kashmir: azadi, azadi, azadi 8.  The Case For India To Quit Kashmir 9.  Kashmir - Freedom Can be Delayed but Not Denied 10.  Independence Day for Kashmir  

By Sikander Hayat India has no excuse this time. It used to be “Pakistan based” terrorists who were fighting the 700,000 Indian army/paramilitary troops in Indian held Kashmir. Now it’s the “Pakistan based” stone throwers who are being butchered by “brave” Indian army on the streets of Srinagar & other parts of Kashmir. Worst part of the tragedy is that this killing is indiscriminate. They are killing women, children & anyone who dare to say the word azadi (freedom). India is the so called biggest democracy of the world but a people who ask in their overwhelming majority for azadi are being crushed through the barrel of gun. I am sure this episode will be crushed soon and less than a week later that, Indian establishment will be congratulating each other for the heroism that their armed forces shown in the valley of Kashmir. But deep down in their hearts even they know that every time they crush a rebellion, they crush it only temporarily, because the basic issue has been and s

By Sikander Hayat Alas, people will keep on dying everyday. No one in the world will take notice. World is buying the Indian line. They truly believe that India is treating Kashmiris with dignity but during the last 21 years India has just butchered them with impunity and now even street protesters are branded as terrorists by the "free" & "unbiased" Indian media outlets. There are problems in Pakistan as well but at least Pakistan does not claim to be the beacon liberty and democracy in the world. India must understand that Kashmir's problems are not economic which can be alleviated by building roads and bridges but is truly of a political nature. Kashmir needs a political solution and a grand bargain between India, Pakistan & the people of Kashmir. Until that happens, any normality in Kashmir will be of superficial nature and nothing more than a lull before another storm.

The Kashmir insurgency - one of the world's longest-running conflicts - began 20 years ago this week. And it was the shockwave from the fall of the Berlin Wall that gave young Kashmiris the confidence to take on the Indian state, the BBC's David Loyn says. Simmering discontent over this unfinished business left over from the partition of India in 1947 turned into a full-scale insurgency after the kidnap of Rubiya Sayeed, the daughter of the Indian home minister, on 8 December 1989. She was released a few days later in exchange for five militants held in an Indian jail. A police crackdown on victory celebrations was the spark that lit the fuse of the conflict. One of the militants who took up the gun that week, Mukhtar Baba, said that he and his friends had the confidence to take on India because of events in Europe. "The German people stood up against that man-made Berlin wall, so we thought why don't we, and we started that armed struggle here," he says. The then

By Sikander Hayat All the pictures are from Azad Kashmir First let’s talk about the geography & political structure of Azad Kashmir. The Azad State of Jammu and Kashmir, usually shortened to Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) or, simply, Azad Kashmir, is the southernmost political entity of Pakistan. It covers an area of 13,297 km² (5,134 mi²), with its capital at Muzaffarabad , and has an estimated population of about four million. The state's financial matters, i.e., budget and tax affairs, are dealt with by the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council, instead of by Pakistan's Central Board of Revenue. The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council is a supreme body consisting of 11 members, six from the government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and five from the government of Pakistan. Its chairman/chief executive is the president of Pakistan. Other members of the council are Azad Kashmir's own president and prime minister and a few other AJK ministers. Azad Jammu and Kashmir has its

This article ( Read the Article at HuffingtonPost )is a complete fabrication and overlooks the basic fact that Gilgit Baltistan has been trying to join Pakistan proper for a long time and if anything the criticism has been on Pakistan government for not giving complete provincial status to Gilgit Baltistan. Anyone who is remotely familiar with Gilgit Baltistan and its people and not a biased Indian like Madhavi Bhasin knows that this area wants to merge with Pakistan but because of the reasons of international law Pakistan is waiting for India to agree to a referendum in the whole region of pre 1947 state of Jammu & Kashmir but India is not allowing this to happen hence putting Gilgit Baltistan and other areas of Jammu and Kashmir in limbo. All Pakistan government is trying to do is to relieve some of the pain by giving the people of this self rule and province like powers with a legislative assembly, a chief minister directly elected by the people of Gilgit Baltistan. If this is

There is curfew like situation in Srinagar after a teenager was killed by the Indian armed forces.

By Aijaz Hussain The Associated Press updated 11:53 a.m. ET Feb. 21, 2009 SRINAGAR, India - Thousands of angry villagers protested in India's portion of Kashmir on Saturday, accusing the army of fatally shooting two men and critically wounding another, police and residents said. Men in combat gear fired at a vehicle in Bumai village on Saturday evening, critically wounding all three passengers, said B. Srinivas, inspector general of police. Two of them died en route to a hospital, Srinivas said. Bumai lies 38 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir. Local residents blamed the army, and as news of the killings spread to the nearby town of Sopore, thousands of people took to streets chanting slogans against India and its military, and demanding independence for the Himalayan region. An estimated 700,000 Indian soldiers are deployed in Kashmir. There were some reports of stone throwing. Srinivas said police were trying to pacify the protesters. &qu

SRINAGAR: JKLF chairman Mohammed Yasin Malik, a rebel virtually all his life, is set for domesticity. Malik (39), engaged to Mushaal Hussein Mullick (30), a Pakistani painter and a student at London School of Economics, will formally wed in Islamabad next week. Malik was in a jail in Kashmir in October 2008 for his anti-poll campaign when engagement rings were exchanged in Karachi between Malik’s Pakistani representative and Mushaal’s family. Mushaal supports charities and NGOs working on gender issues. Her late father, professor M A Hussein, was an economist of international repute, while her mother is Rehana Hussein Mullick, former secretary general Pakistan Muslim League’s women’s wing. Brother Haider Ali Hussein Mullick is a South Asia policy wonk in Washington DC. Malik is one of the first five JKLF militant commanders who launched “azadi” movement in Kashmir in 1989.

By Jeremy Page Arrogant, ham-handed, startling, impertinent – these are the sort of words used here, with reason, to describe David Miliband's comments on the Mumbai attacks last week. There is another word, though, that applies equally well: correct. Of course it was impolitic to contradict Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, by saying that Britain does not believe the Pakistani state directed the Mumbai attacks. As for suggesting that the root cause of such attacks is Kashmir, surely the FCO recalls India's outrage in 1997 when Robin Cook suggested mediating on that issue? For the current Foreign Secretary of the former colonial ruler to make both these points publicly, while on Indian soil, was either deliberately provocative or incredibly naive. Mr Miliband also managed to cause offence with his tone and body language – a schoolboy error in dealing with a notoriously sensitive partner. The fact remains, however: he was spot on. Indian officials admit in private that there

LAHORE: Former PM and Quaid PML (N), Mian Nawaz Sharif has urged India to talk to Pakistan sincerely on Kashmir dispute. He said that for a better relationship between the both countries the Kashmir dispute should be solved. Mian Nawaz Sharif expressed his views during a meeting with Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal. The meeting, which lasted for more than one and a half hour both the dignitaries, discussed various issues of mutual understanding. Mian Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan desires a friendly relationship with India and to promote a friendly atmosphere both countries should take sincere steps towards the solution of Kashmir dispute. He said that without the solution of Kashmir issue, friendly relationship between both neighboring countries would be impossible. He added that India avoids from sincere dialogue yet now the current situation demanded sincerity of India in this regard.

The bullet went right through the forehead. It was 4 p.m., and Shahid-ul Islam was dead. On Monday, the father of the 21-year-old, now revered as a martyr in the slushy Kashmir village, narrated the events of that August day without bitterness as he stood surrounded by the men who had witnessed his son's death and carried his body. There were no tears, no raising of the voice. "My son's martyrdom has filled every person in this village with rage. There is so much oppression. But not a single stone has been lifted," said Ali Mohammed, 49, speaking matter-of-fact with little anger in his voice. "There is a new turn in the movement." After Kashmir witnessed its biggest public rebellion in two decades this summer, its deep anti-India discontent has taken a dramatic, new, Gandhian turn. There are no bombs, no rocks, no anti-India abuses, no arson. Militant groups have said they will not disrupt the elections. Protests are peaceful, and many anti-India voters on M

Rashid Paul Srinagar, Nov 16: Even though India is a signatory to various international covenants calling for protection of rights of women in conflict zones, rape is being used as a war weapon in Kashmir by Indian armed forces. This was stated by Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, who teaches at the department of Law, Kashmir University and is also a noted columnist, on the second day of a two-day seminar on “women and the law” held at the varsity. While enumerating international resolutions and covenants guaranteeing protection of women in areas of armed conflict, he said, “India is a signatory to these agreements but its armed forces are using rape of Kashmiri women as a war weapon.” He said when pilots of Indian fighter jets were shot down by Pakistani troops during Kargil war, India complained to Pakistan that it was not treating well the pilots whether dead or alive. “But it continues to treat inhumanly the non- combatants like women in Kashmir,” he added. “In villages, cities and towns