Kashmir conflict
The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the area of the former Indian princely state of Jammu and Kashmir , which was dissolved in 1947 . The parties to the conflict are India , Pakistan and the People's Republic of China , who each lay claim to parts of the disputed territory or keep these areas under control. But not only political rule, but also raw materials were the cause of conflict.
Because of the Kashmir conflict, there were five wars: the Indo-Pakistani wars from 1947 to 1949 , 1965 , 1972 (here, however, the events in Bangladesh were largely dominant) and 1999 , as well as the Indo-Chinese border war of 1962 . All three parties to the conflict now have nuclear weapons . The United Nations has had an observer mission ( UNMOGIP ) in the border area since 1949 .
In August 2019 , the Indian government lifted the special status of the Jammu and Kashmir region .
Historical background
Prehistory and British Colonial Rule
From the 10th century onwards, Islam gradually invaded India. Little by little, Punjab and later Kashmir came under Islamic rule and a substantial part of the population adopted the Islamic religion. After the Battle of Panipat in 1526 , the Mughal Empire was founded by Islamic conquerors in northern India, which at the time of its greatest expansion around 1700 comprised large parts of the Indian subcontinent. Kashmir was also part of the Mughal Empire. In the course of the 18th century, the Mughal Empire was increasingly weakened, which made invasions from outside possible. Around the middle of the 18th century, the Durrani Empire established itself in eastern Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan , which also gained control of Kashmir. The British East India Company advanced from Bengal . In the Battle of Plassey in 1757, a British contingent under Robert Clive defeated a much larger army of the Mughal ruler, who then had to cede all of Bengal to the British East India Company. The Mughal Empire continued to decline in the following decades and was completely annexed by the British after the Indian Uprising of 1857 .
The Durrani Empire also proved to be not very long-lived. In 1819 Kashmir was conquered by the Sikh Empire in neighboring Punjab. However, the Sikh Empire also came into conflict with the British East India Company and was defeated militarily by them in the First Sikh War . The victory of the British was greatly facilitated by the betrayal of individual military leaders in the Sikh army. In a way, as a reward for his betrayal, the military leader Gulab Singh received the title of Maharajah in 1846 and the rulership of Jammu and Kashmir. Shortly thereafter, an uprising broke out in Punjab, which resulted in the entire former Sikh state being annexed by the British East India Company after the Second Sikh War . Jammu and Kashmir became a princely state within British India under the Hindu dynasty founded by Gulab Singh.
Division of the Indian subcontinent
With the partition of India in 1947, the princely states were given the opportunity to join one of the two successor states that had been formed from the British provinces - India and Pakistan. The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC), a majority Muslim party in Jammu and Kashmir, which, unlike Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Muslim league, did not see itself as a Muslim party, spoke out against joining Pakistan. The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir initially hesitated to make a decision. After Muslim irregulars had invaded the country in order to force the annexation to Pakistan, however, he declared on October 26, 1947 the annexation of his country to India, which was recognized the following day by the Governor General of India Louis Mountbatten . On January 1, 1948, India brought the Kashmir issue to the United Nations , which had only been founded two and a half years earlier . The UN Security Council then passed UN Resolution 47 on April 21, 1948, calling on both parties to the conflict to negotiate a ceasefire and then to hold a referendum in Jammu and Kashmir.
The wars for Kashmir
The armed conflict between Pakistani and Indian units in Kashmir began on October 27, 1947 and culminated in the First Indo-Pakistani War . India called the United Nations on January 1, 1948 for mediation and the UN Security Council called on the conflicting parties on April 21, 1948 in resolution 47 to a ceasefire, which was to be followed by a plebiscite in which the people decide on their nationality should. Ultimately, an armistice agreement ( Karachi Agreement ) was not concluded until July 27, 1949 , which subsequently turned out to be problematic as the armistice line was not precisely defined. The armistice line only existed in the areas that were contested, but not in the northern highlands.
Pakistan has been orientating itself westwards since 1954. India oriented itself towards the Soviet Union, but remained free of alliances. After India suffered defeat in the 1962 border war with China , Pakistan signed an alliance and border treaty with China. From 1962 India began to rearm, which is why Pakistan declared war on India ( Second Indo-Pakistani War ) . On September 1, 1965, Muhammed Ayub Khan attacked the only connection to Kashmir. The armistice was declared on September 26, 1965.
The 1971 war ( Third Indo-Pakistani War , also Bangladesh War ), which ended with Pakistan's surrender, initially did not affect Kashmir. In the Shimla Agreement of 1972, the armistice line was renamed the Line of Control .
Development between 1947 and 1982
Sheikh Abdullah wanted an independent Kashmir that should be a secular , socialist state. He implemented the land reform and thus came into conflict with the Maharaja . India strove for the gradual incorporation of Kashmir. Kashmir had ceded sovereignty over foreign policy, defense and communication to India, otherwise it remained autonomous. In July 1952, the Delhi Agreement confirmed this autonomy and Kashmir got its own flag. S. Abdullah still wanted a completely independent state, which is why India became suspicious and put him in prison. Although he was released, he was soon arrested again for calling for a referendum to be held. He was then released in 1968 but banned from voting in the 1972 elections, which in all likelihood he would have won. The "Plebiscite Front", which campaigned for referendums, was allowed to go again.
The agreement with Indira Gandhi , the " Kashmir Accord ", was a kind of surrender for him. There were no more new elections in Kashmir and he was installed on the orders of Indira Gandhi and was therefore under her control. Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in India in 1975 and ruled with dictatorial powers, which in 1977 led to her electoral defeat. There were new elections in Kashmir and Jammu, in which Sheikh Abdullah emerged victorious and was thus the democratically legitimized Prime Minister. In 1980 Indira Gandhi returned to power. In Kashmir, the young generation of Muslims was disappointed as there were hardly any jobs. A third of the civil service was occupied by Kashmiri pandits . There were pogroms that led to that most Hindus had to flee from the valley of Kashmir. These pogroms were driven by Islamic fanaticism . The region became a “powder keg”, the explosion of which the Sheikh Abdullah was able to prevent for a while.
Development from 1982
Farooq Abdullah succeeded his father Sheikh Abdullah as party leader of the JKNC and Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in 1982 after the death of his father. The Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi overthrew him out of power politics and from 1984 to 1986 her candidate Ghulam Mohammad Shah became Chief Minister. Dissatisfaction and the unrest that went with it increased so much in Jammu and Kashmir that in 1986 the state had to be placed under the direct control of the central government ( president's rule ) for a few months . Then Farooq Abdullah, who had meanwhile allied himself with the Congress Party , became Chief Minister again. The 1987 parliamentary elections were won by the JKNC / Congress Party coalition, but the election was widely viewed as grossly falsified. The brazen election fraud led to a radicalization of the opposition.
| year | Deaths | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| civil persons |
Police and military |
Terrorists | total | |
| 1988 | 29 | 1 | 1 | 31 |
| 1989 | 79 | 13 | 0 | 92 |
| 1990 | 862 | 132 | 183 | 1177 |
| 1991 | 594 | 185 | 614 | 1393 |
| 1992 | 859 | 177 | 873 | 1909 |
| 1993 | 1023 | 216 | 1328 | 2567 |
| 1994 | 1012 | 236 | 1651 | 2899 |
| 1995 | 1161 | 297 | 1338 | 2796 |
| 1996 | 1333 | 376 | 1194 | 2903 |
| 1997 | 840 | 355 | 1177 | 2372 |
| 1998 | 877 | 339 | 1045 | 2261 |
| 1999 | 799 | 555 | 1184 | 2538 |
| 2000 | 842 | 638 | 1808 | 3288 |
| 2001 | 1067 | 590 | 2850 | 4507 |
| 2002 | 839 | 469 | 1714 | 3022 |
| 2003 | 658 | 338 | 1546 | 2542 |
| 2004 | 534 | 325 | 951 | 1810 |
| 2005 | 521 | 218 | 1000 | 1739 |
| 2006 | 349 | 168 | 599 | 1116 |
| 2007 | 164 | 121 | 492 | 777 |
| 2008 | 69 | 90 | 382 | 541 |
| 2009 | 55 | 78 | 242 | 375 |
| 2010 | 36 | 69 | 270 | 375 |
| 2011 | 34 | 30th | 119 | 183 |
| 2012 | 16 | 17th | 84 | 117 |
| 2013 | 20th | 61 | 100 | 181 |
| 2014 | 32 | 51 | 110 | 193 |
| 2015 | 20th | 41 | 113 | 174 |
| 2016 | 14th | 88 | 165 | 267 |
| 2017 | 57 | 83 | 218 | 358 |
| 2018 | 86 | 95 | 270 | 451 |
| total | 14,881 | 6452 | 23,621 | 44,954 |
After the Congress party's defeat in the all-India elections in 1989 , Vishwanath Pratap Singh became Prime Minister. Five days after the government was formed, terrorists abducted the daughter of the Indian Interior Minister Mohammad Sayeed from Kashmir and released five prisoners. The government sent Jagmohan to Srinagar as governor and took a tougher course. Farooq Abdullah therefore resigned. Soon after, police shot protesters in a bloody massacre. This marked the beginning of the era of state terror and the murderous militancy of the rebels. Jagmohan believed he had to save the Pandits, fearful of pogroms, and carried out a huge evacuation . However, some pandits stayed.
After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 , the number of rebels did not decrease, as there was a constant influx of Islamic religious fighters. After the withdrawal of the Soviet infidels from Afghanistan, godly warriors were less needed there. The military secret service (ISI) of Pakistan , founded in 1948, has its own policy, also for deploying and equipping Islamic religious warriors. Their directors found good recruits in the young Afghan refugees. The Pakistani General Zia also lured a large number of Taliban into the country. The ISI was largely co-financed by American funds.
Both parties claimed the entire Siachen glacier. Fighting has been going on there since 1984. Actually, this fight is not about the glacier, but about access to the southern Karakoram pass . India had lost part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir to China in the war between 1959 and 1962. This is why the Karakoram Pass became so important in the first place, as it became an important trade link between Kashmir and China. Many radical parties and terrorist organizations with completely different interests formed in Kashmir. Some wanted a secular, independent state. Others like HUM want an Islamic state and are ready to enforce their goals by force. The terror was also directed against prominent leaders from within its own ranks. Often the victims were religious, fundamentalist leaders, but there were also victims among the “normal” politicians.
As a result, India deployed more and more police and military in Kashmir. However, this was unsuccessful. In 1985 the Indian National Security Guard, a paramilitary anti-terrorist unit, was founded. It comprised around 7500 specialists. However, the National Police were reluctant to work with police officers sent by the Indian government and the like. a. together, which also led to smaller arguments among themselves. Those arrested as terrorists were tortured and often killed. This only fueled the wrath of not only terrorists but only further.
After 1989 there was a decade of weak Indian governments, some of which only held office for a short time. In 1991 there were elections again , after which a minority government of the Congress Party was formed. This had to get the internal problems of India under control, because one was on the verge of national bankruptcy due to a balance of payments deficit . The Congress Party decided to liberalize the Indian economy and devalue the currency, as the World Bank had called for. In India itself there were conflicts between Hindu nationalists and Islamic fundamentalists. Not only Jammu and Kashmir, but also the states of Punjab and Assam were trouble spots that were difficult to control.
In 1996 there was re-election and then finally the 6-year president's rule over Jammu and Kashmir was repealed, so that elections to the federal state parliament could be held, which were won by the "National Conference". A “third force” also emerged, consisting of more than a dozen regional parties. Although it was a minority government, it was tolerated by the National Congress. Now the opportunity had come for Farooq Abdullah to come back to power. The elections were boycotted by the "extra-parliamentary opposition" which was still a problem for him.
The confrontation between two nuclear powers
India pursued a policy of "nuclear ambiguity". Nobody knew for sure whether India was in possession of nuclear weapons . The worldwide astonishment was all the greater when India carried out five nuclear tests and thus went public. Since US President Richard Nixon was considering the use of nuclear weapons in India in 1971 and it was known that he would not have done it if India had had nuclear weapons itself, Indira Gandhi pushed ahead with the nuclear program. Pakistan saw this development and was provided by China with the appropriate technology needed to manufacture nuclear weapons. In 1998 the Pakistani Ghauri missile was tested, to which India in turn responded with a series of tests. Pakistan built a research reactor in 1960, which was the first step towards building an atomic bomb. Bhutto wanted to secure parity with the otherwise overpowering India. In 1990 Pakistan openly declared that they had the atomic bomb. The mutual deterrent theory does not apply in South Asia. Pakistan, in particular, is ready to carry out a first nuclear strike if it feels threatened by India. As the situation between the nuclear powers worsened, Vajpayee began a peace offensive. There was a meeting in Lahore, where he demonstratively hugged Sharif. That was of little use, however, for the attack on Kargil followed shortly afterwards; this greatly disappointed Vajpayee. From then on, new conversations cost him a great deal of effort.
The Kargil conflict
The operation in the Kargil area was worked out under Zia. Sharif approved the Musharraf Plan in November 1998. The Pakistani commandos occupied the mountain ranges. On the Indian side, nothing of this was noticed for the time being. It was only when their positions were taken under artillery fire that they realized that it was a major attack. The counter-attack was all the more forceful. In June 1999, Indian troops retook almost all of the occupied territories. US President Bill Clinton wanted to mediate. Vajpayee accepted, and after some hesitation so did Sharif. He was received by Clinton in Washington, which Sharif rated as a success, since he had achieved an "internationalization" of the conflict. Sharif wanted to get rid of Musharrafs, but Musharrafs got the upper hand and elegantly got rid of the Prime Minister. He prosecuted him and forced him into exile. He only took over the office of President later and only had elections held after five years. In this way he secured an almost incontestable position of power.
Impending escalation
The prelude to this crisis was a terrorist attack on the Indian parliament. (The Pakistani government is not suspected of being behind this attack.) However, it served to drive a wedge between the two countries. But success was thwarted at the last moment. Nevertheless, Indian troops marched on the Pakistani border. Musharraf felt threatened and had to be careful to de-escalate a conflict with India. This was followed by a peace offensive. At the summit conference (SAARC) in early 2002, Musharraf Vajpayee demonstratively shook hands. Tensions were temporarily reduced. But in mid-May a terrorist attack on a small Indian garrison followed . Vajpayee stayed calm. It has been relatively quiet in Kashmir under Farooq Abdullah since 1999. Omar Abdullah became Minister of State in the Indian Foreign Ministry. Musharraf's popularity declined and the fundamentalists even wanted to kill him. Because of this, he carried out some missile test flights. These served mainly as an internal demonstration of power. Even so, India, the United States and the Western powers were shocked by the provocation.
Several intermediaries have come to India and Pakistan in recent years. Musharraf benefited from this international attention. The highlight was the Asian summit in Almaty. India eventually granted the US a diplomatic role in resolving the Kashmir conflict, but did not allow it to act as mediator.
Development 2019
On February 14, 2019, 44 Indian Federal Reserve Police (CRPF) were killed in a bus by the Islamist terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed in a suicide attack near Awantipora in the Indian part of Kashmir . In response, on February 26, Indian Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jets penetrated Pakistani airspace and bombed the organization's training camps near the border near Balakot . According to Indian sources, several of the terrorist group's fighters were killed, while Pakistani authorities denied that there were any fatalities. The Indian government accuses Pakistan of tolerating these camps and letting terrorist leaders live in Pakistan unmolested. Two days later, Pakistan shot down two Indian planes over Pakistani territory and captured the pilots. The airspace over the border region of the two countries was closed and international air traffic was diverted accordingly. In addition, it is said to have resulted in mutual fire with mortars.
On August 5, 2019, India lifted the special status for Kashmir and sent tens of thousands of soldiers to the region. The authorities also imposed curfews in the regional capital of Srinagar and surrounding areas. Schools were closed. The Internet was blocked and the cell phone and landline network switched off. Several regional politicians were placed under house arrest. The government of the state of Jammu and Kashmir called on vacationers and pilgrims to leave the region. Pakistan announced that it would suspend trade with India and restrict diplomatic relations with New Delhi by announcing the expulsion of the Indian ambassador. It also announced the referral to the International Court of Justice .
In October 2019, a group of 27 predominantly right-wing European parliamentarians visited Kashmir, including two members of the AfD and six members of the French Rassemblement National . At the same time, Indian parliamentarians as well as representatives of the UN and the US Senator Chris Van Hollen were denied access to Kashmir. The European Parliament stressed that it was not an official visit. The trip was organized by two Indian businessmen who run several propaganda pro-Indian websites at the same time.
literature
- Rudolf Geiger: The Kashmir Question in the Light of International Law . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1970.
- Rudolf Geiger: Kashmir. In: Rudolf Bernhardt u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Public International Law . Volume 12, pp. 195-200.
- Patrick Hönig: The Kashmir conflict and the right of peoples to self-determination . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2000.
- Mohammed Soeed Chaudry: The Kashmir conflict , its causes, its nature and the role and efforts of the United Nations . Weltforum Verlag, Munich 1996.
- Sumit Ganguly: Conflict unending: India-Pakistan tensions since 1947 . Columbia University Press, New York 2001.
- Mushtaqur Rahman: Divided Kashmir: Old problems, new opportunities and for India, Pakistan and Kashmiri people . Lynne Rienner Publishers, London 1996.
- Dietmar Rothermund : Kashmir hotspot: The conflict between the nuclear powers India and Pakistan . 2002.
- Victoria Schofield: Kashmir in the crossfire . Tauris, London 1996.
- Robert G. Wirsing: India, Pakistan and the Kashmir dispute: on regional conflict and ist resolutions . Saint Martin's Press, New York NY 1994.
- Hermann Kreutzmann: Dispute over Kashmir. In: Geographical Rundschau . Vol. 54, No. 3, 2002, pp. 56-61.
- NN: Autonomy, the last chance for Kashmir. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . July 21, 2000, Zurich, pp. 35-38.
- NN: Dangerous escalation in the Kashmir conflict. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . June 4, 1999, Zurich, pp. 21-25.
See also
Web links
- Interview with Salman Rushdie on Qantara.de about the Kashmir conflict
- Film and information about the political situation of women in Kashmir (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 47 Resolution of April 21, 1948. undocs.org, accessed April 21, 1948 (English, French).
- ↑ 47 (1948) resolution of April 21, 1948. undocs.org, accessed on August 5, 2019 (English, French).
- ^ Altaf Hussain: Kashmir's flawed elections. In: BBC News. September 14, 2002, accessed October 18, 2014 .
- ^ Fatalities in Terrorist Violence 1988-2015 . South Asia Taerrorism Portal, accessed on February 3, 2019 .
- ↑ Andres Wysling: India bombs Pakistan - spiral of escalation turns . February 26, 2019, ISSN 0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed February 27, 2019]).
- ^ Air strike in Pakistan: India attacks alleged terror camp - tagesschau.de
- ↑ ORF at / agencies red: Kashmir: Pakistan shoots down two Indian military jets. February 27, 2019, accessed February 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Escalation in the Kashmir conflict: "Today we showed them" tagesschau.de, on February 27, 2019
- ^ Judah Ari Gross: "India used Israeli arms for strike inside Pakistan - report" timesofisrael.com February 26, 2019
- ↑ tagesschau.de: Kashmir conflict: War mood between India and Pakistan. Retrieved February 28, 2019 .
- ↑ Bombings in Kashmir, Pakistan with mortar projectiles
- ↑ Conflict with Pakistan: India revokes special status for Kashmir . In: Spiegel Online . August 5, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed August 5, 2019]).
- ↑ Dexter Filkins: Blood and Soil in Narendra Modi's India. In: The New Yorker. December 9, 2019, accessed February 3, 2020 .
- ↑ Jammu: Mobile internet snapped, Section 144 to be imposed from 6 am. Indiatoday.in, August 5, 2019, accessed on August 5, 2019 .
- ^ Crisis between India and Pakistan: curfew in Kashmir, internet blocked . In: Spiegel Online . August 5, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed August 5, 2019]).
- ↑ Kashmir conflict: Pakistan expels India's ambassador . In: Spiegel Online . August 7, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed August 7, 2019]).
- ↑ Kashmir: Pakistan to seek International Court of Justice ruling , BBC World, August 20, 2019
- ↑ Outrage over right-wing Euro-MPs' Kashmir visit , BBC News, October 30, 2019
- ^ Pro-Indian 'fake websites targeted decision makers in Europe' , Flora Carmichael, Abid Hussein, BBC News, December 16, 2019