Now, Pakistan has announced elections in Pak Occupied area of Gilgit and Baltistan, India will have to reconsider its Kashmir policy and rationale thinking has to be brought in with a perspective beyond Kashmir especially in the face of Pakistan’s efforts to change the demographic character of PoK where the sizeable Shia population is at the receiving end of the Sunni extreme violence. Elections to Gilgit and Baltistan are slated for 8th June under the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Govt Order, as an attempt by Pakistan to camouflage its forcible and illegal occupation of the region which comprises part of entire state of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan hoodwinked the people of Kashmir, by granting ‘political autonomy’ to Northern Areas, the erstwhile Gilgit Agency that formed an integral part of the undivided princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which in toto belongs to India. Pakistan has illegally occupied the Northern Areas since 1947. Now after 62 years, it has approved the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order, 2009, changing the official name of the region from the Northern Areas to Gilgit-Baltistan. The people of the region have become victims of sectarian conflict, terrorism and extreme economic hardship due to Pakistan’s ocupationary policies in recent times. Pakistan granted near provincial status to the Northern Areas in 2009. The region has witnessed a spike in militant activities by groups like the Taliban in recent years. Since the building of the Karakoram Highway in 1966 China has steadily been increasing its stranglehold on Gilgit. The Chinese see the region as their access to link Muslim countries. India’s silence on the development in Gilgit is baffling as for 62 years it has been physically under Pakistan control while India has constitutional capacity. India has made its stand clear on talks with Pakistan on Kashmir issue and said talks with neighbour can only be held in an atmosphere of goodwill and no third party mediation is required. With Pakistan announcing elections in the occupied area of Kashmir, how the bilateral relations move forward has to be seen. It would not be out of place to say that now is the time for India to reiterate its stand on greater Kashmir and to remind the international community the dispute is not confined to Kashmir only.
