India-Pakistan thaw
India and Pakistan now have an opportunity and an incentive to mend fences, reports Sudhanshu Ranjan from New Delhi
This year's Eid Al-Fitr was a special one for the people of war-torn Kashmir. Guns fell silent along the two country's international borders as India and Pakistan set out to warm relations ahead of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in January, which will take Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to Islamabad. This time the offer of a cease-fire came from Pakistan's Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, which India reciprocated warmly.
Hours after the cease-fire, which started at midnight on 25 November, Colonel Nadeem of the Pakistan Rangers showed up at the Octroi post in Suchetgarh. He had brought with him his son, Assad. It was a special day; the first day of Eid Al-Fitr -- the feast which follows the holy fasting month of Ramadan, and the start of a new border truce. As he watched his father exchange greetings, sweets and fruits with Rajesh Gupta, commandant of the Indian Border Security Force, Assad broke into smile. "When I get back to school after the vacation, I'll tell my friends what I saw. It makes me so happy," he said. What this little boy saw was, indeed, unbelievable. In fields near the LoC, children played while their parents worked, both unmindful of the Rangers' stares. On the other side of the border, the Rangers also looked relaxed. Many homes near the LoC, long deserted because of the intense shelling by Pakistani artillery, were unlocked as people, after learning of the cease-fire, decided to return.
On 24 November India reciprocated Pakistan's first offer of peace, but officials in New Delhi cautioned that Indian soldiers would continue to keep watch and fire on people infiltrating the border, trying to enter the Kashmir valley. A spokesperson from the Ministry of External Affairs said that, "in order to establish a full cease- fire on a durable basis, there must be an end to infiltration." But New Delhi could not resist testing Pakistan's nerve by also proposing a cease- fire along the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) in Siachen. The army's objective behind proposing an extension of the cease-fire to the AGPL on the Siachen Glacier was also to convince Pakistan to accord some sanctity to the positions held by Indian troops.
The two armies have agreed to maintain their present positions on the Siachen Glacier and respect the AGPL. Army sources say the Indians have told the Pakistanis that if any attempt is made to change the status quo, troops will open fire.
The Indian army anticipates a sharp drop in the high casualty rate in the formidable Siachen Glacier-Saltoro Ridge sector, the world's highest and coldest battlefield. "The number of casualties could come down by as much as 50 per cent on both sides," said a senior Indian Army officer. The Indian army refuses to disclose casualty figures, but estimates suggest it could have been upwards of 2,500 soldiers since 1984. Pakistan has suffered from a similarly high death toll.
Incessant artillery, mortar and machine-gun fire exchange over the last few years have meant that ammunition and supplies must be replenished continually. Apart from costing billions of rupees, moving ammunition and supplies to forward posts and gun positions along the lines is both a formidable and dangerous task.
The glacial area beyond the LoC, as defined in the 1972 Simla Agreement, remains undeliniated. India, which controls the heights, wants the two countries to exchange maps authenticating their positions on the AGPL. Pakistan has refused. Since 1984, Indian troops have held this line, thwarting any Pakistani move to dislodge them. Officers dismiss any suggestion of a mutual troop withdrawal from the glacier.
Hours before the cease-fire came into effect US Secretary of State Colin Powell called Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha to take stock of the positive developments. Sinha told Powell that India was happy to respond to Jamali's offer but insisted that infiltration continue to be checked. He added that infiltration attempts would be countered. However, India clarified that in the event of infiltration, the army would only attack infiltrators, not the Pakistani posts.
Defence Minister George Fernandes appeared quite sanguine. "There are enough reasons to believe the cease-fire will take [the two countries] to a final solution as it was implemented after serious thought," he commented.
The new initiative may lead to the opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, which was proposed as one of the confidence-building measures by India when Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf visited Agra in August 2001. It will connect Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) with the Kashmir valley and reunite families split across the Indo-Pakistan border.
Harban Kaur, a 77-year-old Sikh woman, returned to PoK on 24 November to meet her long- lost Muslim children. She is just one of the many families separated by the partition of India in the wake of independence. Just hours before India and Pakistan began their historic cease-fire, her cross-border quest ended when she met them for the first time since the 1950s.
At the time of partition, Kaur was separated from her husband who, being a Sikh, was forced to flee Muslim-dominated Kashmir. Assuming him lost, she married a local Muslim, converted to Islam, and bore two children. But in the mid- 1950s, she had to leave Kashmir and her new family after an agreement between India and Pakistan required women to return to original husbands. In India she returned to her Sikh faith and her first husband, with whom she had two daughters and a son. "It was my wish to see my other children again once in my life and my wish has come true," Kaur said.
Seven years ago, Kaur's children managed to trace their mother. "We spoke by phone, wrote letters and exchanged pictures," Kaur's daughter Zeenat Biwi says. It was only with the resumption of the bus service between Lahore and New Delhi that their dream finally began to take shape.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 11 - 17 December 2003 (Issue No. 668)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/668/in2.htm