Pok and Cok
Pok and Cok
Pakistan occupied Kashmir is divided into two parts:
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)
Gilgit-Baltistan (referred to as the 'Northern Areas' till August 2009)
Azad Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan is also called Azad Kashmir and is attached to the western part of I
ndian Kashmir.
Baltistan was the area of west Ladakh province which was occupied by Pakistan in 1947.
instrument of Accession
1. During partition, Jammu and Kashmir was given the option to join either India or Pakistan but Mahar
aja Hari Singh, the ruler of that time, decided to keep it as an independent state.
2. In 1947, Pakistan's Pashtoon tribals attacked Jammu and Kashmir. To tackle this situation, Maharaja
Hari Singh sought military help from the then Indian Governor-General Mountbatten.
3. Mountbatten replied saying, "It is my government's wish that as soon as law and order have been res
tored in Jammu and Kashmir and her soil cleared of the invader, the question of the State's accession sh
ould be settled by a reference to the people."
Here’s my thread on today’s significance in Indian History 26th Oct 1947: Maharaja Hari Singh signs on a
ccession of Jammu & Kashmir to India pic.twitter.com/2jAKbz5Mq2 Manjinder S Sirsa (@mssirsa) Octo
ber 26, 2017
4. Following Mountbatten's advice, the Indian government attempted a plebiscite, or referendum, for t
he Kashmiri people to decide if they wanted to stay a part of India, Pakistan, or remain an independent s
tate.
5. The plebiscite could not take place as the Pakistani government and a part of Kashmiri residents ques
tioned the legality of India's accession to Kashmir, which up till now remains a point of debate.
6. Following this, Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession at Amar Palace in Jammu on
October 26, which India's last Governor-General Lord Mountbatten accepted on October 27.
7. This remark is said to have sowed the seed of the Kashmir dispute.
Why is PoK important?
Because of its location, PoK is of immense strategic importance. It shares borders with several countries
- the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province provinces (now called Khyber-Pakhthunkhwa) in Pakistan
to the west, the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan in the north-west, Xinjiang province of the People’s Re
public of China to the north and India’s Jammu and Kashmir to the east.
2. Though India celebrated its independence on August 15, 1947, Maharajah Hari Singh agreed
to accede to the Indian Union only on October 26, 1947.
3. Accession Day is a holiday celebrated in Jammu and Kashmir, commemorating October 26,
1947, when Maharaja Hari Singh signed of the Instrument of Accession at Amar Palace in Jam
mu, to India. The agreement made the former independent princely state of
J&K join the Union of India.
4. The exact date of accession has also been debated on. While Indian historian Prem Shankar
Jha said that the accession document was signed on October 25, British researcher Andrew Wh
itehead pointed out that it happened a day later.
5. Kashmiri separatists observe Accession Day as Black Day.
6. Early in the morning on October 27, the Indian Army's first Sikh battalion was airdropped in S
rinagar where they resisted the Pathan invasion and officially completed Kashmir's accession to
India.
7. Azad Kashmir claims to have a self-governing legislative assembly though it is a known fact t
hat it is under the control of Pakistan. The present President of the state is Sardar Masood Khan
and Raja Muhammad Farooq Haider Khan is its current Prime Minister.
8. Pak Occupied Kashmir (POK) also has its own Supreme Court and High Court.
9. A part of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's Hunza-Gilgit, the Shaksgam Valley, region of Raksam
and Baltistan was handed over to China by Pakistan in 1963. This area is called a ceded area o
r Trans-Karakoram Tract.
The tract, called Shaksgam, is technically part of Shigar, a valley of Baltistan region of Ladakh P
rovince. The Raja of Shigar controlled this land until 1971 when Pakistan abolished the Raja go
vernment system.
The Tract is one of the most inhospitable areas of the world, with some of the highest mountains
including Broad Peak, Gasherbrum and Masherbrum, and is adjacent to the highest battlefield i
n the world at Siachen Glacier.
Following the abrogation of Article 370 and reorganisation of the State of Jammu & Kashmir
in August 2019, China strongly criticised the Indian Home Minister’s statement in
Parliament, in which he had reiterated India’s long-standing position that the state of
Jammu & Kashmir includes Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) as well as Aksai Chin. 1 The
fact of the matter is that the map of India has always included these territories as part of
Jammu & Kashmir, along with POK, including the trans-Karakoram tract of Shaksgam
which was illegally ceded by Pakistan to China.
China has become increasingly assertive in backing Pakistan’s moves to agitate the issue
at the international level. It has tried to trigger discussions in the United Nations Security
Council (UNSC) on four occasions since then. Simultaneously, it has continued to
designate the issue as a bilateral legacy dispute between India and Pakistan.
Even in Kashmir, the Chinese subterfuge has largely gone unnoticed, under-reported and
under-analysed. Following China’s interference in India’s internal affairs, some Kashmiri
leaders have even welcomed China’s growing interest in the Kashmir issue. Former Chief
Minister of Jammu & Kashmir Farooq Abdullah has made an outrageous statement that
Kashmiris would much rather be under Chinese rule!
China occupied Aksai Chin claiming that it was part of ancient and medieval Chinese empire. It
is a convenient claim from an era when boundaries did not have the same sanctity as they do in
the times of nation-states.
If the same logic is extended, Tibet becomes an illegal occupation of China. The same Tibet
had an intricate trade and cultural relation with Ladakh of which Aksai Chin is a part.
Tibet-Ladakh relations continued even after the Mughal Empire extended to Ladakh in 1660s.
Some twenty years later in 1680s, the rulers of Ladakh and Tibet signed a treaty that now
debunks China's claim of Ladakh being an integral part of Tibet.
Later during the times of British rule over India, another treaty was signed in 1842 between the
rulers of Tibet and Kashmir, confirming that Ladakh was part of Kashmir and controlled by its
government. Dogra chief Maharaja Gulab Singh was the king who had conquered Ladakh in
1834.
China did not object to Ladakh or Aksai Chin being part of India until a couple of years after
1950, when Indian Constitution adopted the whole of Jammu and Kashmir as its integral
territory.
Historian Ramchandra Guha writes in his "India After Gandhi": No official Chinese maps
showed Aksai Chin as part of China before the 1920s, and a Sinkiang (Xinjiang) map of the
1930s showed the Kunlun (the mountains) rather than the Karakoram (range) to have been the
customary boundary - which had been the Indian claim all along."
How it started the capture ig
Celebrated French journalist and author of "The Fate of Tibet: When Big Insects Eat Small
Insects", Claude Arpi has cited the US intelligence agency, the CIA to show that the Chinese
policy on Aksai Chin shifted in 1952.
The Chinese planned aggression beyond the western boundary of Tibet - which had been taken
over by the communist regime in 1950 - through a network of three roads to be built under
military supervision passing through Aksai Chin. One of these three roads is Highway Number
219 that connects Hotan in Xinjiang to Lhasa in Tibet. Claude Arpi also cited a CIA document to
say that the Chinese military first made its appearance in Northwestern Tibet -- that is, east of
Ladakh-Aksai Chin -- in 1951. Construction activities began only after 1953 when Hindi-Chini
Bhai-Bhai was becoming the slogan for India-China friendship.
By 1959, the myth of friendship had been busted and then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru was diplomatically asserting India's sovereign right over Aksai Chin that China had for all
practical purposed occupied.
Five years before the India-China war began, a Chinese newspaper, Kuang-ming Jih-pao,
reported on October 6, 1957: "The Sinkiang-Tibet -- the highest highway in the world -- has
been completed."
It reported that a number of trucks were running on the highway on a trial basis, arriving in Tibet
from Xinjiang.
In 1958, then Foreign Secretary Subimal Dutt wrote to Nehru saying there was "little doubt that
the newly constructed 1,200 kilometre roadpasses through Aksai Chin".
China strengthened its position after the 1962 war and set the LAC entirely unilaterally in
Ladakh including the Galwan Valley area where a violent face-off took place on June 15-16
night last week. In 1962, Chinese troops were stopped by the Indian soldiers near the present-
day LAC in Ladakh unlike the eastern sector, where the invaders had come down to Tezpur in
Assam. When China announced ceasefire unilaterally, it retreated to the McMohan Line in
Arunachal Pradesh but held military control of Aksai Chin.
According to an article having its origin in PLA Ground Forces and written sometime in 2010,
the Chinese leadership of 1960s considered the occupation of Aksai Chin as a brilliant move
coming out of "the strategic vision of a great man, Chairman Mao Zedong".
It argues that "Aksai Chin is like a Damocles sword hanging over India's head" in addition to
being a gateway to Central Asia and an easy route to "easily run over New Delhi, the Indian
capital city. Subsequently sweep across Mumbai etc. India's economic centers, and defeat India
once again."
This explains why China was expressly keen in seizing Aksai Chin.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi said that it has accepted the prayers that
electronic records be considered. "We have accepted the prayers that electronic records must be placed in consideration.
His guilt is proved. We affirm the view taken by this court and reject the review petition," the bench said.
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the plea of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Mohammad Arif alias Ashfaq seeking
review of its judgement awarding death penalty to him in the 2000 Red Fort attack case that left three people, including two
Army jawans, dead. A bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi said that it has accepted the
prayers that electronic records be considered.
“The government’s only interest seems to be PoK just to keep the domestic
audience in good humour for the sake of winning elections. At the same
time, the government has failed to even acknowledge the Chinese
intrusions in Ladakh. Who are we deceiving?” he said.
1. Massive military effort required and this can lead to an all out war with
Pakistan where both sides stand to lose much.
2. Pakistan military has major bases in POK and so it will be difficult to control
even if India manage to occupy POK.
3. Difficult terrain of POK will always ensure Pakistan have the edge.
4. Population of POK may not be ready to accept India. This will be a double
problem because population of Indian Kashmir is also not very friendly with
Indian government and both together can prove to be a major problem .
5. Terrorists and Jihadis will get a new life if this is to happen and India can
see major terror attacks but this is a relatively simpler problem to resolve.