Everything about Pakistan-administered Kashmir totally explained
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir consists of two regions
Azad Kashmir and the
Northern Areas. It borders
Indian
-occupied Kashmir to the east, the Pakistani
Punjab and
North-West Frontier provinces to the west, and the
People's Republic of China to the north. The territories are
disputed between India and Pakistan and it's referred to by India as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Conversely, Pakistan refers to Indian-administered Kashmir as Indian-occupied Kashmir.
History
During the
partition of
British India into the
Dominion of Pakistan and the Republic of
India, the
Princely states had the options of joining either
India or
Pakistan.
The
Pakistan Declaration of 1933 had envisioned the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir as one of the "five Northern units of India" that were to form the new nation of Pakistan, on the basis of its Muslim majority. The
Maharaja of Kashmir however wanted independence.
In 1947 tribal invaders arrived in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan has always claimed that its government wasn't behind these raids and that these were spontaneous expressions of Muslim sentiment following reports of killing of Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir.
India disputes this citing the book "Raiders in Kashmir" in which Major General Akbar Khan, a Pakistani states the following "I wrote out a plan under the title 'Armed Revolt inside Kashmir'. As open interference or aggression by Pakistan was obviously not desirable it was proposed that our efforts should be concentrated upon strengthening the Kashmiris internally—and .. to prevent arrival of armed civilian or military assistance from India into Kashmir...".
American journalist
Margaret Bourke-White describes the plunder by the raiders:
"Their buses and trucks, loaded with booty, arrived every other day and took more
Pathans to Kashmir. Ostensibly they want to liberate their Kashmiri Muslim brothers, but their primary objective was riot and loot. In this they made no distinction between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims".
"The raiders advanced into
Baramulla, the biggest commercial centre of the region with a population then of 11,000, until they were only an hour away from Srinagar."
Unable to prevent the advance the Maharaja, on October 24, 1947, appealed for military assistance from the Government of India. The Indian Government argued that in order for assistance the state would have to accede to India.
According to the Indian embassy:
Pakistan disputes this and according to the BBC
Indian forces started pushing back the Pakistanis. The then Prime Minister of India asked the
UN to intervene. The United Nations asked for a ceasefire and the present '
Line of Control' was created. The area which remained under the control of Pakistan became the Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Administered divisions
Pakistan-administered Kashmir is administratively divided into two parts:
- Azad Kashmir;
- The Northern Areas, consisting of the regions of Gilgit and Baltistan. Gilgit was an agency leased by the Maharaja to British Government. Baltistan was western district of Ladakh province which was annexed by Pakistan in 1948. Both regions of Gilgit and Baltistan are administered as a de facto "Federal Territory" of Pakistan by a Pakistani minister. As the area is part of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region, the local population is denied the right to vote or send representatives to the Pakistani parliament or senate;
Additionally, a part of Hunza-Gilgit called
Raskam and the
Shaksgam Valley of
Baltistan region, ceded by Pakistan to the
People's Republic of China in 1963 pending settlement of the dispute over Kashmir. This ceded area is also known as the
Trans-Karakoram Tract.
