Both India and Pakistan are fighting for Kashmiri land and neither country is interested in welfare of the Kashmiris.
NEW DELHI: It looks as if India and Pakistan can never smile at each other sincerely. There are two reasons for that. One, the Kashmir issue does not allow that to happen. Two, the big Uncle Sam does not let such a thawing of ice to take place for his own strategic reasons.
India and Pakistan, as neighbours, are sharing Jammu and Kashmir territories according to their military strength — more for India and less for Pakistan. Therefore, Pakistan has a ‘genuine’ complaint that India took the lion’s share of Jammu and Kashmir, leaving very little for it. And therefore, Pakistan seeks more of Jammu and Kashmir lands under Indian occupation to be added to Pakistani occupied Azad Kashmir.
While India repeatedly says Jammu and Kashmir is now under its occupation and belongs to it and puts a big full stop; Pakistan still asks for a “resolution” of the Kashmir dispute without specifying what it means by “resolution.” Pakistan does it deliberately by giving a possibility of different interpretations by the stakeholders in their own ways.
The fact remains that both India and Pakistan are fighting for Kashmiri land and neither country is interested in the welfare of the Kashmiris. The Kashmiris have become mere pawns in the hands of both India and Pakistan.
Nobody bothers about the Kashmiris. That is the crude truth about Kashmir and Kashmiris, besieged between two nuclear powers where there are no credible statesmen.
Dr Abdul Ruff
Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2014.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
