Farooq Ganderbali
Better late than never, India has rightly raised the issue of increased Chinese presence in Pakistan, particularly in the disputed territory of Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The $45 billion investment in building transport and energy corridors through the disputed territory of Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Pakistan is something which India cannot accept. It poses a serious threat in many ways. So when the Chinese leadership raises the irrelevant issue of Dalai Lama’s presence in India, Prime Minister Modi should clearly articulate how Beijing’s close proximity to Islamabad and Rawalpindi is seen as a major security threat to New Delhi.
Let us first settle the issue of Dalai Lama. His Holiness is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists who were driven out of their homeland when China invaded Tibet and annexed it. It was an act of aggression and remains so despite the Chinese claim that Tibet was an “autonomous region“ of the mainland. If it were so, then why so much of hue and cry over Dalai Lama’s presence in India? Dalai Lama is an honoured guest here, in India and it is not India which invited the Buddhist leader but he himself chose to seek asylum in the land of Buddha, India. India’s decision to accept Dalai Lama as a guest was not made to anger China but to keep up the age-old tradition in this part of the world not to turn away any guest. Guests are God. Dalai Lama’s presence in India should not come between the bilateral relationship between India and China.
But the PoK and the Chinese presence there does. Pakistan occupied Kashmir as the name suggests is part of Kashmir which has been forcibly occupied by Pakistan. It was never part of Pakistan and can never be. It was part of the small Himalayan Empire ruled by Hindu King Raja Hari Chand. It is well known how Pakistan through subterfuge captured the areas under the guise of the UN ceasefire after it launched a major offensive against India a few months after Independence. It is an undisputed fact that the attack on Kashmir was launched by Pakistan Army. India defended its territory supremely and managed to drive out the tribal lashkar sent by Pakistan Army. Since India wanted peace, it moved the UN for a ceasefire. Crafty military leadership in Pakistan thought it best to keep the areas of Kashmir under their possession before accepting the ceasefire. It is therefore a disputed territory and rightly belonged to India.
This is not unknown to the Chinese. The Pakistanis, fearing that the stolen areas may be taken back by India either through military means or through the UN, decided to gift a large part of the areas to the Chinese. Under the dubious China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963, Pakistan illegally ceded 5,180 sq km of Indian Territory in PoK to China. India must get it back and Prime Minister Modi should let it known, howsoever diplomatically but with firmness, to the Chinese leadership.
In whichever way we look at it, the Chinese decision to invest in hydropower projects and infrastructure in the disputed territory is grossly illegal and is a major cause of instability in the region. It is also equally disputed that under the grab of these projects, the Chinese have been slowly but steadily expanding their military presence in the disputed Indian territory. This is uncalled for and is against all international norms. The Chinese have claimed rather dubiously that the soldiers were sent to work on beefing up the Karakoram Highway which links Tibet with Pakistan.
In 2009, a well known American journalist, Selig Harrison, writing about the Chinese military incursion in the disputed territory said that there were about a Division strong military presence in the area. He put the figure between 7000 to 11000. These numbers would have jumped several times in the years since then.
The Chinese were also reported building some 22 tunnels in the fragile Himalayan region ostensibly to build a gas pipeline linking Iran to China. Military officials, however, said the same tunnels could also be utilised as missile storage facilities. It has been reported elsewhere that Pakistan moved some of its nuclear assets through the Karakoram Highway in 1999 when India began a massive counter-offensive against Pakistan Army’s attempt to capture some strategic heights overlooking the critical Srinagar-Leh Highway. China had reportedly moved troops on the Aksai Chin-India border as a threatening gesture. The Aksai-Chin is an area of approximately 38000 square kilometers of Indian Territory which was illegally annexed by China during the 1962 war.
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