Kashmir Solidarity Day

Kashmir Day is being observed all over Pakistan today to show solidarity with the Kashmiri people's struggle for independence from India, and draw world attention to this unfinished part of the Subcontinent's partition agenda. Having fought two full-fledged wars - one soon after the Partition in 1948 and the other in 1965 - and two limited ones over Kashmir, the political leadership Pakistan and India arrived at the sane conclusion back in 1999 that they needed to resolve this core issue of conflict between them through non-violent means for the sake of peace and progress of their peoples.
Enlightened self-interest, ie, the lure of limitless economic opportunities opening up in the newly independent Central Asian Republics across Pakistan and Afghanistan nudged New Delhi towards conflict resolution. But one or the other unforeseen development has since kept hindering progress.
The then Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee made a groundbreaking visit to Pakistan and the two sides resolved to settle all outstanding issues, including Kashmir, through negotiations. But the just begun peace process suffered a setback as it transpired that at the time the then CoAS General Pervez Musharraf had launched a misadventure at Kargil. Soon afterwards, he staged a coup ousting the civilian government. Still, attraction of newer sources of energy and markets pushed Vajpayee to resume negotiations with Pakistan's latest military ruler, with both sides showing an inclination to find an out-of-box solution.
The two seemed to have come close to a pragmatic solution, but it had to be put on hold because of events leading to political turmoil in Pakistan. Subsequent efforts by successor governments in both countries suffered a major setback in 2008 when an extremist group with suspected Pakistani links unleashed a terrorist attack in Mumbai, bringing the composite dialogue process to a grinding halt.
The outrage over the attack was understandable, but the reaction gave the extremists behind the atrocity their wish. After many ups and downs India has only recently returned to peace talks. But how fragile the process remains without resolution of Kashmir comes out clearly from last month's skirmishes over the Line of Control, in which soldiers from both sides died, trigging a verbal fight between the two countries.
For its part, Pakistan has made a huge concession to India by de-linking Kashmir resolution from normalisation of trade relations. The hope has been that normalization would strengthen peace constituencies in the two countries, paving the way for the solution of the core issue that has kept them in a constant state of confrontation. The latest incident at LoC suggests otherwise. It demonstrates that unless both sides pull back from the LoC as part of a comprehensive settlement acceptable to the Kashmiri people, any untoward incident can reignite fighting, leading to mutual recriminations and stalling progress on the peace front. Extremists on both sides opposed to normalisation can also push back the peace process' advance. As long as Kashmir remains unsettled escalation of hostilities remains a clear and present danger. It is impetrative therefore that it is addressed sooner rather than later.