Indian Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. PHOTO: AFP/ FILE
Indian Kashmir’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Saturday that he hoped the new government in Islamabad would allow international flights originating from Srinagar to fly over Pakistani airspace.
Speaking at a conference on ‘Cooperation, Development, Peace and Security in Central Asia’ at Kashmir University, Abdullah said if Pakistan allowed the use of its airspace for international flights originating from Srinagar, the Srinagar airport could become an international airport in the true sense.
“Unfortunately, because of the ... mindset of our neighbour on the western frontier that does not allow a direct flight from Srinagar to overfly their airspace, we have not been able to take advantage of this connect that was available to us,” a news agency quoted the chief minister as saying.
“One hopes with a new dispensation in Pakistan, with encouraging voices emerging from the new Prime Minister of Pakistan [Nawaz Sharif] about normalising the relations to some extent between our two countries, perhaps this [use of airspace] is one aspect that can also be normalised,” Abdullah stated.
He added that the flying distance between Srinagar and some of the capitals of Central Asian states was shorter than the distance between it and some big Indian cities.
“The international airport at Srinagar that currently exists only on paper [will] become an international airport in operations as well. And one day, the direct flights to one of these Central Asian states [will] originate from Srinagar,” he added.
Abdullah said Indian Kashmir was uniquely placed in the Indian set up to talk about linkages with Central Asia and to, possibly in future, derive advantages from those linkages.
“The policy of the ministry of external affairs of ‘Connect Central Asia’ will be ideally suited for J&K (Indian Kashmir) because geographically we are the closest, spiritually we have a connect and almost every aspect of life in Kashmir, were you to scratch the surface, you will find a connection between us and Central Asia.”
“Our heritage, language, culture, our architecture and the biggest connect is in our religion. Therefore, it is but natural that there will be an affinity between us and Central Asian States,” he added.
Abdullah rued the fact that the neighbourhood of the state “has not allowed us to take advantage of the historic association that Kashmir has with Central Asia”.
The disadvantage for India, he said, was that there was no direct overland linkage to Central Asian countries and the link passed through countries which at the best of the times can “give us some amount of difficulty”.
“Connecting to Central Asia through Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan is not easy but it is a challenge that we have to face,” he concluded.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2013.
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Semantics have only limited value or meaning. In Pakistan the phrases used are Azad Kashmir and Indian Occupied Kashmir. In India the phrases used are Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. By now UNSC resolutions have only historical value. India does not have the means and the freedom to throw Pakistan out of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and Pakistan does not have the means and the freedom to throw India out of Jammu and Kashmir. Lala Gee and Vijay are talking about unnecessary things which have no significance. In the conditions now existing there is no possibility of the reunification of the former princely state as it existed before Independence. People in Pakistan need to leave Kashmir to Kashmiris and concentrate on their own matters within Pakistan. There is no point in talking about jihad and all that. Jihad is not going to solve any problem: instead, it may create many more, as it has already done wherever it was attempted. There is much more sense in attending to the problems of the people on both sides of the India-Pakistan border. V. C. Bhutani, Edinburgh, 30 Jun 2013, 1811 GMT
@Lala Gee: Similarly it is pak occupied kashmir and not Asad kashmir
Omar Abdullah is just a puppet of the Indian Government. He cannot even take a single decision without consulting Indian under-secretaries. He is crying all day and night ( drama ) to revoke Armed Forces Special Powers Act in the Kashmir Valley but has failed terribly. From this you can understand what powers does he actually have. Connecting Central Asia is no longer an issue, we don't trust Pakistani roads for our business with Central Asia. FYI, we have already got Chabahar port in Iran to do business with Central Asia and Afghanistan.
ET it is "Indian Occupied Kashmir", not "Indian Kashmir", which is an disputed territory between Pakistan and India not only recognized by the United Nations and international community, but also by the Kashmiris themselves. On countless occasions this fact has been reminded to you by various readers through their comments. Had this been left only to ET, they might have already printed Indian Pakistan as well.
Establish Kashmir Airlines, and we won't have any problem allowing it to fly over Pakistani territory. Or, ask Indian government to allow Pakistani airlines to use Indian airspace to fly over to other destinations in return for the facility you're asking for.