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| Shia-Sunni conflict in NA alarming | | Anti-Pak Rally In Kargil | | Neha
jammu, Apr 12: Things in the Shiite Muslim-dominated Kargil in the trans-Himalayan Ladakh region are assuming alarming proportions and the developments as they have started unfolding in Kargil have the potential of provoking the already rather dissatisfied and neglected Shiite Muslims in the Valley to ape their co-religionists in Ladakh and create troubles in Kashmir. The Shiite Muslims in Kashmir constitute one of the four major communities in Kashmir, including Sunni Muslims, ethnically different Gujjar and Bakerwal Muslims and Pathowari-speaking or "Pahari"-speaking Muslims (all, without any exception, Sunnis) and Shiite Muslims.
The Shiite Muslims of Kashmir and Kargil have no love lost for Pakistan because the Punjabi Sunni-dominated Pakistani establishment has been making humiliating distinctions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and treating the latter as third grade citizens since decades. The fact of the matter is that there are many powerful sectarian outfits in Pakistan which do not consider the Shiite Muslims as true Muslims. Like the Ahmedias, the Shiite Muslims are also considered non-Muslims in Pakistan.
The Shiite Muslims of Kashmir, like their co-religionists in Kargil, are also extremely angry with Pakistan for another reason. And the reason is that the Pakistani civil and military establishments, plus the Sunni outfits in Pakistan, have been perpetrating all sorts of barbarities on their co-religionists in the Gilgit-Baltistan region and systematically changing the demography of this strategic region adjoining China by settling there Punjabi Sunnis and Pathans ever since 1947-1948, when Pakistan illegally occupied these Jammu and Kashmir territories. Maps in India even today show Gilgit Baltistan or Northern Areas or PoJK as a region within Indian Territory and the 1994 Indian parliamentary resolution states that "Pakistan must vacate the areas of the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir, which they have occupied through aggression." The unanimously passed parliamentary resolution had also expressed "regret and concern at the pitiable conditions and violations of human rights and denial of democratic freedoms of the people in those areas of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir".
It needs to be underlined that Gilgit-Baltistan, also called Northern Areas, is the only Shia-dominated region in the areas under the illegal control of Pakistan. This strategic region has been witnessing not only the process of ethnic cleansing since decades but also a process that was set-in-motion years ago by the Pakistani establishment to change the demographic profile of the region so that the original inhabitants of the areas were not able to create troubles for Pakistan and the process continues even today. Gilgit-Baltistan is a "strategic asset" for Pakistan. It has established its link with Beijing through the Karakoram Highway. Islamabad has been seeking to change the demography of the region with a view to bringing the region into "its iron grip" and it has been doing so after violating human rights and international law. The "impoverished" are is governed under the Gilgit-Baltistan Order of 2009, which bars the people of the region from exercising the rights which are available to the people of Pakistan under the Constitution of Pakistan.
Reports emanating from New Delhi suggest that since the beginning of April "scores of Shias" have been massacred in cold-blood. According to one estimate, no less than 400 Shiite Muslims have lost their lives owing to the reign of senseless brutalities unleashed against this community. Report to this effect emanated from New Delhi only yesterday. Locals say that the "Kohistan and Chilas incidents where cold-blooded mass murders took place were planned and supported by the Pakistani establishment, which is bent on terrorising the people and changing the demographics of Gilgit-Baltistan". Kohistan and Chilas are integral parts of Gilgit-Baltistan region and are Shiite-dominated areas. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has denied that the ongoing conflict is "sectarian" and, on the other hand, suggested that some "hidden forces are involved." Significantly, the Inspector General of Gilgit Baltistan, Hussain Asghar, has refused to buy this argument of Rehman Malik. He reportedly said: "I don't think there is any foreign hand involved in the sectarian riots."
That things in the Gilgit-Baltistan region have gone out of control and the Shiite Muslims of the regions are feeling totally insecure could be seen from happened in Kargil on April 9 and on April 10 at Lahore. On April 9, a protest rally was held in Kargil against the targeted killings in Gilgit-Baltistan and local shia leaders appealed to the Government of India to "take up the issue with the international community". On April 10, "hundreds of Shia Muslims" organized a protest demonstration in front of the Lahore Press Club and urged the media to pressurize the Pakistani government to "stop the atrocities on its community in Gilgit-Baltistan" and bring the situation in the region under control by reining in the Sunnis, all ably backed by the Pakistani establishment.
Will the Government of India intervene on behalf of the suffering Shiite Muslims of Gilgit-Baltistan? Or will it pay any heed to the appeal the Shiites of Kargil made on April 9? The answer cannot be in the affirmative. In New Delhi, laying a claim on that part of Jammu and Kashmir is not considered ''pragmatic'' or ''practical''. That's the reason Gilgit-Baltistan region doesn't figure in the Indian official discourse. The Indian Foreign Office (IFO) hardly makes any comment on what happens in PoJK. In fact, it treats POJK, for all practical purposes, as an internal matter of Pakistan. On the contrary, Pakistan, which has no locus standi in this as well as that part of Jammu and Kashmir, consistently meddles in the affairs of this part of Jammu and Kashmir. Mercifully, even the international community and the so-called India-based human rights activists also consider it prudent not to pay any attention to what is being done by the Sunnis in Gilgit-Baltistan region. |
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