China's Discreet Hold on Pakistan's Northern Borders

[SpArK]

Did nt check the date....


Wasted my time.....

 

[illusion8]

Whether they would be pissed or not. We won't give it to anyone. It is Pakistani territory.

How? the whole area is disputed.

 

[Armstrong]

Like, why the devil didn't my friends tell me about the so called 'genocide' of the Kashmiris by the IA, as the Pakistanis contend, is going on in Kashmir??? They instead told me that there were lakhs of tourists enjoying Kashmir bliss. And one of them spent a romantic honeymoon in Gulmarg too, skiing over the snowy slopes with his newly married wife!

Damn them....damn them all for hiding from me all this stuff! And I thought there was an orgy of violence going on out there!

P.S I'm originally from Gulmarg (a few generations back) - Kameenooo visa tou deiii dooo eik baaar apneii ancestral homeland ko deekhneiii kaaa !

 

[Dillinger]

Yeah but then the difference is that I didn't see any mass graves, shutter-downs, armed revolt, disgruntled people or a few hundred thousand army men in GB back when I visited it in the early '00s !

Heck I can't remember the last time I saw one of our TV Anchors who is quick to lynch our Army otherwise mentioning any of this but I do vividly remember the Gilgit-Baltistanis vociferously demanding that their status be changed from a federal territory to a province of Pakistan....which it was even if its not de jure.

Khair, I've also got a few family members in Srinagar & quite a few in the Kashmiri Diaspora so I get some anecdotal evidence too !

Exaggerator...we're just disciplining them brother..wayward children need disciplining..don't worry...someday in the future it'll just be nerve stapling rather than lamentable violence..its a matter of time and the resources at hand.

 

[Areesh]

How? the whole area is disputed.

It might be disputed. But for us. It is our land. Just like you consider IOK as Indian.

 

[Armstrong]

Exaggerator...we're just disciplining them brother..wayward children need disciplining..don't worry...someday in the future it'll just be nerve stapling rather than lamentable violence..its a matter of time and the resources at hand.

I wish we could just settle our issues in a civilized manner through :

A Halwar-Puri eating competition between you & me, followed by us seeing who can drink the most gallons of Lassi & finally let the spectators on both sides see us two well-fed behemoths battle it out in the ring in a free & fair match of Turkish Oil Wrestling !

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

How? the whole area is disputed.

Gilgit Baltistan was never a part of kashmir.. it was an islamic emirate ruled by the amir of Hunza.. and those people arent even kashmiri... plus they are strictly proud of being Pakistanis.. with NLI entirely recruited from GB and even gilgit scouts etc ... heck there were protest with the people demanding the region to be settled and made a province of Pakistan... and guess what today it has a CM and a governor and is a province of Pakistan... also do take into account tht it was the gilgit scouts tht rose the maharaja of IOK in 47 and ceeded with Pakistan...GB also has the highest literacy rate in Pakistan:

Uprising Memorial
The Uprising Memorial, is a memorial to those who rose against the Maharaja in 1947. It includes the graves of the local heroes, Mohammed Babar Khan and Safiullah Beg of the Gilgit Scouts, and Mirza Hassan Khan of the Kashmir Infantry.

At Partition, many had anticipated Maharaja Hari Singh's eventual accession to India. A clique of Muslim officers in the Maharaja's own army, led by Colonel Mirza Hassan Khan, had been conspiring to seize Kashmir for Pakistan, but word had got out and Hassan was transferred to Kashmir's 'Siberia', the Bunji garrison south of Gilgit.

Meanwhile, the Gilgit Scouts' Major Mohammed Babar Khan and several fellow officers (and, according to some, their British commander) had hatched their own rebellion.

Within days of the Maharaja's decision, a mob gathered in Gilgit from neighbouring valleys. The governor called Bunji for help, and who should be among the reinforcements but Colonel Hassan. On 1 November Babar Khan arrested Governor Ghansar Singh and the rebels asked to join Pakistan.

Within a few days the Scouts, with Muslim soldiers of the Kashmiri army, joined the war with India. In the following months the Scouts took Baltistan, and Hassan got to the outskirts of Srinagar.

The fledgling Indian air force at one point bombed Gilgit, no easy task in the narrow valleys. Gilgitis like to tell the story of the Scouts' pipe band, which mocked the Indian pilots by defiantly tootling up and down the airfield the whole time.

Memories of the 'Uprising' are still alive in Gilgit. Hassan, Babar and another leader of the Gilgit Scouts, Maj Safiullah Beg, are buried in Chinar Bagh, and many of their offspring are local politicians and entrepreneurs.

 

[Gandhi G in da house]

China's Discreet Hold on Pakistan's Northern Borderlands

By SELIG S. HARRISON

A quiet geopolitical crisis is unfolding in the Himalayan borderlands of northern Pakistan, where Islamabad is handing over de facto control of the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan region in the northwest corner of disputed Kashmir to China.

The entire Pakistan-controlled western portion of Kashmir stretching from Gilgit in the north to 'Azad (Free) Kashmir' in the south is closed to the world, in contrast to the media access that India permits in the eastern part, where it is combating a Pakistan-backed insurgency. But reports from a variety of foreign intelligence sources, Pakistani journalists and Pakistani human rights workers reveal two important new developments in Gilgit-Baltistan: a simmering rebellion against Pakistani rule and the influx of an estimated 7,000 to 11,000 soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army.

China wants a grip on the region to assure unfettered road and rail access to the Gulf through Pakistan. It takes 16 to 25 days for Chinese oil tankers to reach the Gulf. When high-speed rail and road links through Gilgit and Baltistan are completed, China will be able to transport cargo from Eastern China to the new Chinese-built Pakistani naval bases at Gwadar, Pasni and Ormara, just east of the Gulf, within 48 hours.

Many of the P.L.A. soldiers entering Gilgit-Baltistan are expected to work on the railroad. Some are extending the Karakoram Highway, built to link China’s Sinkiang Province with Pakistan. Others are working on dams, expressways and other projects.

Mystery surrounds the construction of 22 tunnels in secret locations where Pakistanis are barred. Tunnels would be necessary for a projected gas pipeline from Iran to China that would cross the Himalayas through Gilgit. But they could also be used for missile storage sites.

Until recently, the P.L.A. construction crews lived in temporary encampments and went home after completing their assignments. Now they are building big residential enclaves clearly designed for a long-term presence.

What is happening in the region matters to Washington for two reasons. Coupled with its support for the Taliban, Islamabad’s collusion in facilitating China’s access to the Gulf makes clear that Pakistan is not a U.S. “ally.” Equally important, the nascent revolt in the Gilgit-Baltistan region is a reminder that Kashmiri demands for autonomy on both sides of the cease-fire line would have to be addressed in a settlement.

Media attention has exposed the repression of the insurgency in the Indian-ruled Kashmir Valley. But if reporters could get into the Gilgit-Baltistan region and 'Azad' Kashmir, they would find widespread, brutally-suppressed local movements for democratic rights and regional autonomy.

When the British partitioned South Asia in 1947, the maharajah who ruled Kashmir, including Gilgit and Baltistan, acceded to India. This set off intermittent conflict that ended with Indian control of the Kashmir Valley, the establishment of Pakistan-sponsored Free Kashmir in western Kashmir, and Pakistan’s occupation of Gilgit and Baltistan, where Sunni jehadi groups allied with the Pakistan Army have systematically terrorized the local Shiite Muslims.

Gilgit and Baltistan are in effect under military rule. Democratic activists there want a legislature and other institutions without restrictions like the ones imposed on 'Free Kashmir', where the elected legislature controls only 4 out of 56 subjects covered in the state constitution. The rest are under the jurisdiction of a “Kashmir Council” appointed by the president of Pakistan.

Precisely because the Gilgit-Baltistan region is so important to China, the United States, India and Pakistan should work together to make sure that it is not overwhelmed, like Tibet, by the Chinese behemoth.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/opinion/27iht-edharrison.html?scp=3&sq=Baltistan&st=cse&_r=0

The speed at which things are moving in Pakistan administered Kashmir where the Chinese have set themselves up permanently, it would be surprising if the area doesn't become another autonomous region of China like TAR, sooner than later. The writing is on the wall. For Pakistan - losing its hold in the Northern Areas to China and for India - a clear threat to the Kashmir Valley.

So Northern Area of Pakistan is under Chinese control and so is Gwadar which lies to Pakistan's South. Gradually the two ends will meet.

 

[Pulsar]

Same here. My friend from Gilgit. He never mentioned that his hometown is being occupied by China. Another very close friend of mine spend 2 weeks in Astore valley. He also didn't mention any Chinese occupation.

Don't know why these guys hide all this occupation? When NYT and Bharatis know so much about those regions. Last time when you guys started propagating this lie, it was a NYT report which first published this story. Nothing new.

PS: It is the same old report of Slegg Harrison from 2010. Facepalm.

Pakistan Army brigadier Masood Ahmed, chief of staff, earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation authority, coordinates 14 projects in which China has invested more than $6 billion. China’s expanding military footprint in Pak Administered Kashmir attracts attention as Beijing has virtually taken over the entire disputed region in Kashmir under the guise of reconstruction and rehabilitation after the 2005 earthquake that hit the region.

Chinese construction and telecommunication companies have obtained contracts to expand the Karakoram highway, construct tunnels and mega dams at Diamayar Bhasa, Bunji and Skardu.

Go and check it out yourself. But unfortunately you can't, as special permits are required from the Chinese authorities stationed there! Isn't it ironical that Pakistanis have to obtain permission from the Chinese to visit parts of their own country?

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

So Northern Area of Pakistan is under Chinese control and so is Gwadar which lies to Pakistan's South. Gradually the two ends will meet.

Chal hai yaar... jou putna hai pout lay!

Pakistan Army brigadier Masood Ahmed, chief of staff, earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation authority, coordinates 14 projects in which China has invested more than $6 billion. China’s expanding military footprint in Pak Administered Kashmir attracts attention as Beijing has virtually taken over the entire disputed region in Kashmir under the guise of reconstruction and rehabilitation after the 2005 earthquake that hit the region.

Chinese construction and telecommunication companies have obtained contracts to expand the Karakoram highway, construct tunnels and mega dams at Diamayar Bhasa, Bunji and Skardu.

Go and check it out yourself. But unfortunately you can't, as special permits are required from the Chinese authorities stationed there! Isn't it ironical that Pakistanis have to obtain permission from the Chinese to visit parts of their own country?

Lol... only a fool believes tht.

 

[illusion8]

It might be disputed. But for us. It is our land. Just like you consider IOK as Indian.

Of course, and in reality nothing's gonna change on the ground but the real status remains disputed so even if you desire you cannot hand it over to anyone else.

 

[Gandhi G in da house]

After some Years Chinese will claim these lands also showing some fake historic evidences

They don't have to claim these lands. They know it's already theirs

 

[Pulsar]

DATE......not checked. !!!!Published: August 26, 2010

So? Things don't happen overnight. This is China's long term strategy that may take decades. It started in 2006 and continuing to this day with 11,000 PLA troops built up in the Northern Areas. More are probably on their way as I write this post!

So don't brush things under the carpet just because it's an article written in 2010. It's happening now!

 

[Gandhi G in da house]

Why is everybody concentrating on the date so much ? Have the Chinese left since then ?

 

[Areesh]

Of course, and in reality nothing's gonna change on the ground but the real status remains disputed so even if you desire you cannot hand it over to anyone else.

That's the point. The report is false. It isn't handed over to anyone.

Why is everybody concentrating on the date so much ? Have the Chinese left since then ?

Chinese are there just like thy are in Gawadar and in Punjab and Sindh for various projects. It doesn't mean occupation.

Go and check it out yourself. But unfortunately you can't, as special permits are required from the Chinese authorities stationed there! Isn't it ironical that Pakistanis have to obtain permission from the Chinese to visit parts of their own country?

Only you can believe in this. I understand your situation.