With violence on the ground, hopes for peace are fading

By Asif Farooqi, IOL Pakistan correspondent 

ISLAMABAD, June 11 (IslamOmline.net) - Rasheed Ahmad spent his daily income to get his radio transistor repaired last month only to hear the latest developments concerning the Indian-Pakistani conflict.

Every night after finishing dinner in his wooden tent in this huge refugee camp in the outskirts of Muzafarabad, capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, he tunes in different radio channels hoping to hear news positive news concerning Pakistan and India.

But in the past many days, he says he has not heard any encouraging news. “Once again hopes are dying,” he said while putting his radio off.

“Now I have little reason to believe that Kashmir would be peaceful anytime soon and I would be able to go back to my home and parents,” he said.

30 years old Rasheed crossed the disputed border line dividing Pakistani and Indian Kashmir on July 24, 1991. Two days earlier to that day, his elder brother and a cousin were shot dead by the Indian paramilitary force BSF during a raid on their home in Rajori district.

He escaped to Pakistan where he and many other intended migrants were shifted to the Ambore refugee camp in Muzafarabad and were declared Kashmiri refugees.

More than 1.5 million Kashmiri refugees live in Pakistan. Most of them are well settled in urban areas of the country. Less resourceful people still live in refugee camps inside Pakistani part of Kashmir.

All of these men, women and children were forced to leave their homes since the Indian invasion of Kashmir valley in 1947, soon after the withdrawal of British imperialists from the sub-continent.

The Kashmiri Muslims, who form a clear majority in this Himalayan state, clashed with Indian forces when they demanded their right to independence, sparking one the world’s bloodiest freedom struggle.

According to Amnesty International figures, more than 75000 Kashmiris have lost their lives in this struggle so far. And it goes on.

India blames Pakistan of insurgency in Kashmir, which has been cause of two out of three wars between the two since 1947.

But hopes flew high about peace in Kashmir and in the region when in April this year Indian Prime Minister declared that he wanted friendship with Pakistan and resolution of disputes.

Several peace overtures have been exchanged since then between the two neighbors including announcements with regards to the resumption of communication links.

But for the likes of Rasheed Ahmad, things have not changed much in actual terms. 

While Pakistan and India are making slow progress towards achieving peace, pessimism persists among intellectuals and Kashmiri migrants future of whose second generation hangs on the success of peace initiatives between the two South Asian neighbors.

“I don’t really think Kashmir dispute could be resolved in my lifetime because Indian leadership is not interested in that. They only want to gain time,” Rasheed Ahmad told Islamonline.net.

Rasheed is not the only one who thinks this way on the prospects of resolution of Kashmir dispute. Level of mistrust between leaders of the two countries is such, that even intellectuals and political analysts in Pakistan are not very hopeful of Kashmir resolution in near future.

“Latest move for resumption of talks between India and Pakistan is based on the international pressure and not on the will on both sides to resolves the Kashmir disputes” said Professor Tahir Amin, an international relations expert in the Quaid e Azam University in Islamabad.

This is not the first time Pakistan and India are probing peaceful means to end disputes. Last of these unfinished initiatives proved to be a disaster when talks between President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajepayee collapsed in Agra, India in July 2001 and Pakistanis returned from India without formally concluding the three-day summit meeting.

Military tensions followed and the two countries were on the brink of war a year later when U.S. intervened to stop escalations for fear of nuclear exchange.

Sardar Abdul Qayum, an eminent leader of Kashmir struggle and former President of the state of Kashmir under Pakistan’s control, said he is also not too optimistic about success of talks between India and Pakistan as far as Kashmir is concerned.

And without any give and take, Rasheed Ahmad and many Kashmiri refugees believe, Pakistan and India can not resolve this dispute.

“Both of these big countries are not ready to drift away from there positions on Kashmir,” Ahmad Ali, another refugee in the Muzafarabad camp, said.

“And if both countries continue to stick to their political positions, our future and the future of next generation is still lost,” he concludes.