MAJOR PROBLEMATIC AREAS BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN

While there is growing desire for peace and stability in the region, Indo-Pak relations are a minefield , where every step needs to be taken carefully. Volatile public opinion and vitriolic or skeptical media on both sides do not help much. The two countries , to their credit, have taken cautious steps to maintain the Thimphu spirit and move forward with the process at normalisation of relations. But how to break the ice and move ahead is the question.
Soft diplomacy and people-to-people contacts do have a role to play but it will require fresh ideas and out-of-the-box solutions on the real bones of contention to finally break the ice. It is instructive, therefore, to take a quick look at some of the more tricky issues, which need to be sorted out.

Kashmir : India is not averse to autonomy

If there is one issue on which both India and Pakistan cannot afford to move back from their known positions, it is the status of Jammu and Kashmir. Still they discuss it every time they meet without arriving at any understanding.
The region is divided among three countries in a territorial dispute:
India controls the central and southern portion (Jammu and Kashmir) and Ladakh, Pakistan administers the northwest portion (Northern Areas and Azad (Pakistan occupied) Kashmir ) and China controls the northeastern portion (Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract).  India controls the majority of the Siachen Glacier area including the Saltoro Ridge passes, whereas Pakistan controls the lower territory just southwest of the Saltoro Ridge. India says the entire state of J & K belongs to it, a claim contested by Pakistan. In 1994, the Indian Parliament passed a unanimous resolution declaring that the state of Jammu and Kashmir has been, is and shall be an integral part of India and any attempt to separate it from the rest of the country will be resisted by all necessary means.India and Pakistan have fought at least three wars over Kashmir in 1947, 1965 and 1999. They have also been involved in several skirmishes over the Siachen Glacier. A rigged assembly election in 1987 triggered unrest in the valley. Pakistan started fishing in troubled waters and encouraged militants in the state to unleash a wave of violence. Since then, the beautiful Kashmir valley has been the site of conflict between the Indian Armed Forces and militants and separatists. India has furnished documentary evidence to the United Nations that these militants are supported by Pakistan, leading to a ban on some terrorist organisations, which Pakistan is yet to enforce. The turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir has resulted in thousands of deaths and large-scale migration of Kashmiri pundits and Hindus from the state to other parts of India. Many Kashmiri pandits lament the fact that they can’t return to their homes and blame the Centre for their plight.
The government in New Delhi has, from time to time, offered to hold talks with militants within the framework of the Constitution provided they eschew the path of violence. India is also not averse to granting autonomy to the state but Pakistan would not allow the leadership of the militants to reach any agreement with New Delhi. Pakistan claims that it provides moral, diplomatic and political support to the cause of Jammu and Kashmir. But the world knows it provides material support to the militants too.

Siachen : The most expensive battleground

The Siachen Glacier is the highest battleground on earth, where India and Pakistan have fought intermittently since April 1984. The conditions there are so extreme that the bitterly cold weather claims more lives than the frequent artillery exchanges. The air is so thin that the trajectory of the shells is unpredictable.

Both countries maintain permanent military presence in the region at a height of over 6,000 metres (20,000 ft). The site is one of the most eminent examples of mountain warfare.
The two governments concede that supplying troops on such a remote and inaccessible battlefield is a hugely costly exercise. Both sides say they want a negotiated settlement to the Siachen conflict but a solution has eluded them so far. It is now well known that the two countries were close to reaching an understanding on Siachen when Pervez Musharraf was at the helm of affairs in Pakistan. However, the two countries again seem to be making a sincere attempt to resolve the Siachen dispute. The forward posts on the glacier are over 6,000 metres high, until the 1970s nobody thought of disputing it. The Indian army stationed troops there in 1984 and the two sides have been entrenched in the snow ever since.
Avalanches and altitude sickness pose a constant danger - soldiers say one moment you can be walking with a man, the next he has vanished down a crevice never to return. To reach the forward positions involves using helicopters that have had to be specially adapted to operating at such altitudes. Pakistan has argued that both sides should pull back to the positions they held more than 20 years ago before India occupied most of the ice field. India has said it agrees to that but has argued that the withdrawal should be preceded by marking the current position of the two forces.
Both India and Pakistan had wished to disengage from the costly military outposts. However, after the Pakistani incursions during the Kargil War in 1999, India abandoned plans to withdraw from Siachen unless there’s an official recognition of the current line of control by Pakistan, wary of further Pakistani incursions if they vacate the Siachen Glacier posts without such recognition.
China was the unspoken but ominous presence in the South Block room recently during the talks between India and Pakistan on the Siachen Glacier-Saltoro Ridge region. China’s expanding strategic footprint in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, in fact, seems to have led India to harden its stand, which till now was largely about Pakistan providing iron-clad guarantees to “authenticate” the 110-km Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) along the Saltoro Ridge, on maps and on ground.

Terrorism : Spectre of 26/11 continues to haunt

Any engagement between India and Pakistan is incomplete if India does not raise the issue of terrorism emanating from across the border. Every time the issue comes up, Islamabad claims it is doing everything possible to combat the menace. Pakistan religiously makes pronouncements that it would not allow the misuse of its territory for anti-India activities, only to renege on its commitment.
Relations between the two countries have touched their nadir twice in recent years. Pakistan-trained militants carried out an audacious attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001, aimed to target the entire political leadership of the country. The war clouds were again evident on the region when the then Vajpayee Government amassed troops along the border following the Parliament attack. Pakistan followed suit. Thanks to intervention by the international community, the two sides disengaged and launched a peace process in January 2004. The dialogue was interrupted by the 26/11 attack on Mumbai when Pakistani terrorists unleashed mayhem in the metropolis for three days, killing more than 164 people.
New Delhi believes that Pakistan is providing safe havens to terrorists operating from its soil against India. It has provided to Pakistan a list of 50 of its ‘most wanted’ terrorists who have escaped to Pakistan after committing crimes on the Indian soil. Pakistan has dismissed this list, saying many of those named in it, especially underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, are not present in the country.
To deflect attention from the establishment’s role in aiding anti-India terror groups, Pakistan blames India for the troubles in its restive Balochistan province.
India has yet again conveyed to Pakistan its disappointment over the glacial pace of progress in the trial of the 26/11 accused. Presently there is no magistrate even to conduct the proceedings of the trial in Pakistan. Infiltration from across the border into Jammu and Kashmir is a perennial problem for India. Though infiltration has come down in recent years, it has not stopped altogether.
India also believes that the terrorist infrastructure on the Pakistani soil remains intact despite assertions to the contrary by the Pakistani leadership. Pakistani notorious spy agency ISI continues to foment trouble in J & K. The revelations made by Pakistan-born American David Coleman Headley during the trial of Pak-Canadian businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana recently in a Chicago court, linking the ISI with the Mumbai conspiracy have certainly put Pakistan on the back foot.