Khan Market Gang’s trickery on PoK

Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) consists of two parts, one of which is Gilgit & Baltistan (GB). Pakistan has separated GB from Jammu & Kashmir, and has made it its fifth province. Effectively, it has been annexed. Like the other four provinces, the people of GB vote for a local assembly and send members to the National Assembly.

GB is almost all Muslim, but they follow the Shia sect of Islam, as in Kargil. They do not share the same aspirations as the Sunnis of the Kashmir Valley do. Their language is different from the people of the Valley; the primary language is called Balti.

A part of GB has been carved out and given to China as its territory, thus changing the international border. The Karakoram Highway, which links Tibet to Pakistan, passes through GB. The local activists of GB contend that towns and villages along the highway have been ethnically cleansed of the people of GB; mostly Punjabi Sunnis have been settled. This is because the highway has become part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The cleansing is meant to protect the corridor from any attack by GB activists. For quite some time, there have been reports of discontent of the local GB people with the large number of Chinese working on the various projects of CPEC.

In the rest of PoK, following a deliberate policy, the local demography has been changed. A large number of Pakistanis, particularly ex-army personnel, have been settled. The Punjabis now constitute a large portion of the local people, and the effective official language is Punjabi and not Kashmiri

The mining leases to exploit the natural resources have been given to everyone, and it is said that some Chinese money is also invested in this sector.

Plebiscite

All this information is necessary to understand the Kashmir issue. For the Pakistani government, supported by the Khan Market Gang, say that a plebiscite should be conducted in Jammu & Kashmir. Given what has happened in PoK, clearly the ones who will vote in the exercise, if at all it takes place, will not be the original people of Jammu & Kashmir, but many others. This has happened, as mentioned earlier, due to a deliberate policy by Pakistan and its Punjabi political and military establishment to alter the demography of PoK.

This is a sort of rough explanation of what is happening in PoK. The concerned members of the Khan Market Gang know all this. But it suits their agenda to not talk about it.

 

The author belongs to a business family with headquarters in Goa. He is also the Working President (External) of Vishwa Hindu Parishad