EDITORIALS & ARTICLES

What is Ladakh's demand on Gilgit-Baltistan?

  • Ladakh’s two key socio­political conglomerates, the Leh Apex Body (LAB), representing  several Buddhist religious and political parties, and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA),  representing Muslim religious groups and local parties,  submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Home Affairs, demands include extending the territorial control of Ladakh up to Gilgit­ Baltistan in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

Concerns in Leh and Kargil

  • Kargil – Of Ladakh’s two districts, the August 2019 changes were immediately opposed by the people of Kargil.
  • The people of Kargil see themselves as a minority in Buddhist majority Ladakh.
  • So, the leaders of the majority Shia population in Kargil demanded that the district should remain part of J&K.
  • They also demanded that special status be restored.
  • This was to safeguard the rights of Kargil people over their land and employment opportunities.

Leh – Opposition from Leh came later

  • Leh believed that it was being marginalised in the larger state of J&K.
  • So, a UT for Ladakh had been a long-standing demand in Buddhist majority Leh.
  • But what Leh leaders did not bargain for was the complete loss of legislative powers.
  • Earlier, Leh and Kargil each sent four representatives to the J&K legislature.
  • After the changes, they were down to one legislator – their sole MP, and with all powers vested in the UT bureaucracy.
  • Unlike the UT of J&K, Ladakh was a UT without an assembly.
  • So, the Ladakh districts fear that alienation of land, loss of identity, culture, language, and change in demography would follow their political disempowerment.

Ladakh’s demand on Gilgit-Baltistan

Gilgit-Baltistan

  • Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) was formerly known as the Northern Areas.
  • It is the northernmost territory administered by Pakistan, providing the country’s only territorial frontier, and thus a land route, with China, where it meets the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
  • Located in the northern Pakistan. It borders China in the North, Afghanistan in the west, Tajikistan in the north west and Kashmir in the south east.
  • It shares a geographical boundary with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and India considers it as part of the undivided Jammu and Kashmir, while Pakistan sees it as a separate from PoK.
  • It has a regional Assembly and an elected Chief Minister.
  • China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) also passes through this region.
  • Gilgit-Baltistan is home to five of the “eight-thousanders” and to more than fifty peaks above 7,000 metres (23,000 ft).
  • Three of the world’s longest glaciers outside the polar regions are found in Gilgit-Baltistan.
  • To G-B’s west is Afghanistan, to its south is Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and to the east, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
  • It is Indian territory, part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir that acceded to India in full after Independence, and which has been under illegal Pakistani occupation.
  • Gilgit Baltistan has been under the control of Pakistan since April 1949, when the leadership of the so-called Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) was forced to sign away this territory to Pakistan.
  • However, the region does not have any place in the constitutional framework of Pakistan and has been kept under the tight control of the central government.
  • Gilgit-Baltistan shares a border with Azad Kashmir, together with which it is referred to by the United Nations as “Pakistan administered Kashmir”.

History of the region

  • Gilgit was part of the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir, but was ruled directly by the British, who had taken it on lease from Hari Singh, the Hindu ruler of the Muslim-majority state. When Hari Singh acceded to India on October 26, 1947, the Gilgit Scouts rose in rebellion, led by their British commander Major William Alexander Brown.
  • In November 1, 1947, a political outfit called the Revolutionary Council of Gilgit-Baltistan had proclaimed the independent state of Gilgit-Baltistan., it declared it was acceding to Pakistan, which accepted the accession only to the extent of full administrative control, choosing to govern it directly under the Frontier Crimes Regulation, a law devised by the British to keep control of the restive tribal areas of the northwest.
  • The Gilgit Scouts also moved to take over Baltistan, which was then part of Ladakh, and captured Skardu, Kargil and Dras. In battles thereafter, Indian forces retook Kargil and Dras in August 1948
  • Following the India-Pakistan ceasefire of January 1, 1949, Pakistan in April that year entered into an agreement with the “provisional government” of “Azad Jammu & Kashmir” parts that had been occupied by Pakistani troops and irregulars to take over its defence and foreign affairs. Under this agreement, the “Azad Jammu & Kashmir” government also ceded administration of Gilgit-Baltistan to Pakistan.
  • In 1974, Pakistan adopted its first full-fledged civilian Constitution, which lists four provinces —Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakthunkhwa. Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan were not incorporated as provinces.
  • In 1975, PoK got its own Constitution, making it an ostensibly self-governed autonomous territory.
  • PoK too remained under the control of Pakistani federal administration and the security establishment, through the Kashmir Council.
  • Provincial status, on November 1, 2020, observed in Gilgit-Baltistan as “Independence Day”, Imran Khan announced that his government would give the region “provisional provincial status”.

Centre’s stand

  • In the wake of street protests held by people in Ladakh, the Centre in 2022 formed a committee under Minister of State G. Kishan Reddy to engage with the members of the LAB and KDA.
  • The Centre had assured the people it would find “an appropriate solution  to the issues related to language, culture and conservation of land in Ladakh.” However, it has failed to arrive at a solution.
  • After a fresh bout protests in 2023, another high ­powered committee,  with Minister of State Nityanand Rai at its head, was empowered to engage with the stakeholders of Ladakh.
  • In 2024, these bodies submitted a written memorandum to pave the way for  more structured talks between New Delhi and Ladakh over the list of demands.






POSTED ON 29-01-2024 BY ADMIN
Next previous