Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from July, 2016

The story of the other Kashmir

While parts of Indian Kashmir is on the boil again, with national media focused on giving us an unbiased view, I paused to understand how different life was on the other side of the border, in what is euphemistically called “Azad” Jammu & Kashmir – an Azad J&K that some Kashmiris on the Indian side desire to be part of, through what Pakistan terms as a ‘UN plebiscite’. By the way, I learnt that the plebiscite, that has since been superseded by the post-war 1972 Gandhi-Bhutto Simla Accord which requires India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue peacefully and bilaterally, states unequivocally that Pakistan must completely demilitarize its side of the border, which obviously, it cannot, and will not let happen in the foreseeable future. Back anyway to what I gleaned about Azad Kashmir. Azad Kashmir is lead by the President of Azad J&K, who takes oath of office, swearing that his office is lower to the country and to the cause of accession to the State of Pakista