Annex 2
KASHMIR—A BRIEF HISTORY
There was no agreement between Mountbatten and
Nehru and Jinnah in 1947 regarding the future of the Princely
States following Partition; it remained with each ruler to decide
whether to accede to either India or to Pakistan. The Hindu Maharaja
of Jammu and Kashmir State was undecided, but in October 1947,
when faced with a Pakistani-supported uprising in the west of
his state, he acceded to India in return for Indian military assistance.
India offered to hold a plebiscite (referendum) to ratify the
Maharaja's decision. An inconclusive war between India and Pakistan
followed in 1948, since which time Kashmir has been divided by
a cease-fire line, known since 1972 as the Line of Control (LoC).The
Pakistani-administered portion is almost exclusively Muslim. About
one-third of Indian-administered Kashmir's population is Hindu,
Buddhist or Sikh. India claims there is no territorial dispute
over Kashmir, and that it legally acceded to India. Pakistan,
created as a homeland for the subcontinent's Muslims and to be
formed of contiguous Muslim-majority areas, claims that Kashmir,
with its Muslim majority, was rightfully a part of Pakistan. Since
1948 India and Pakistan have fought two further wars over Kashmir
(1965 and 1999, Kargil) and threatened a fourth in 2001-02. Regular,
and heavy, exchanges of artillery fire across the LoC ended in
November 2003 when a cease-fire was agreed.
Pakistan claims that Kashmir is a question of
self-determination: Kashmiris were denied the plebiscite which
India itself first offered; and which was later endorsed by UN
resolutions. India argues this was overtaken by an elected constituent
assembly in the 1950s, which drew up a Kashmir constitution providing
for autonomy under the Indian Constitution. Following the 1972
Simla Accord the two countries accepted the principle of a bilateral
settlement of the issue. Discussions have been held periodically
between India and Pakistan since their 1972 Simla Agreement, most
recently under the auspices of the Composite Dialogue, against
the backdrop of slowly improving India-Pakistan relations since
the lows of 2002. But mutual mistrust persists. Pakistan continues
to stress the urgency of negotiating an agreement on the status
of Kashmir, whilst India is unlikely to want to make concessions
under the cloud of militancy and violence.
In 1987 Muslim political parties in Kashmir
alleged that elections in Indian-administered Kashmir were rigged.
Some parties formed militant wings and in 1988 a campaign of militant
violence began (started by the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir
Liberation Front) in the Vale of Kashmir. This was supported "morally,
politically and diplomatically"—and in materiel terms—by
Pakistan and pro-Pakistan militant groups. Indian security forces
responded with a counter-insurgency campaign: at least 40,000
people have been killed and over 200,000 injured since the militancy
began (some claim much higher figures of 90,000 dead). There have
also been several major terrorist atrocities elsewhere in India
which may be linked to this.
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