The Forgotten J&K

(Paper prepared for presentation at a seminar on India'sHimalayan Frontiers at the School of International Studies of the JawaharlalNehru University, New Delhi, on February 5, 2005)

While the current freedom struggle launched by the Baloch nationalists inBalochistan has received the attention of the international community, similarattention has not been paid to the growing unrest in the Gilgit-Baltistan areaof Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), which has been under Pakistani occupation since1948. While the Pakistani authorities refer to this area as the Northern Areasof Pakistan, the local nationalists, who have launched a separatist struggle,call it by its historical name of Balawaristan.

Before  1948, this area, which the  then Maharajah of  Jammu& Kashmir had given on lease  to the British  since 1935 in orderto enable the British to keep a watch on the developments in Xinjiang andAfghanistan, used to be known as the Northern Areas of J&K. Gen. Zia ul-Haq,Pakistan's military dictator between 1977 and 1988, had it renamed as theNorthern Areas of Pakistan, at the culmination of a process of integration ofthe territory into Pakistan.

Strategic Concern

This area, which borders on India, China and Afghanistan, has been ofstrategic concern and interest to India, Pakistan,  China and the US.

To Pakistan, because the river waters which sustain agriculture in its Punjab flow from this area, the Karakoram Highway from the Xinjiang province of China constructed with Chinese help in the 1960s and the 1970s and inaugurated in 1978 is of tremendous strategic significance for the clandestine road transport of  nuclear and other military material and missiles and missile parts from North Korea and China to Pakistan; the mountainn heights in this area provide vantage points in any Pakistani attempt to cut off the Ladakh region from the rest of J&K; and the Shias of this area have always proved to be a thorn in Pakistan's flesh.

To China, because the Karakoram Highway helps it in keeping the Pakistani military strength  sustained  against India, which has always been an important Chinese strategic objective; the highway would provide access to the sea  for Chinese exports from the Xinjiang Province through the Gwadar Port on the Mekran Coast in Balochistan now under construction with Chinese assistance; and the likely impact of the growth of Wahabi extremism in this area on the activities of Uighur nationalists and jihadi terrorists in  the Xinjiang province.

To the USA,  in order to keep the pro-azadi (freedom) and not the pro-jihadi separatist groups in Xinjiang sustained in their struggle for Uighur independence and to enable them to counter the activities of  jihadi terrorist groups; to keep a watch on the Chinese nuclear establishment located in the Xinjiang province; to use the local Shias, who are strongly anti-bin Laden, in its attempts to have him, his No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri and other Al Qaeda survivors smoked out.

A conscious policy of bringing  about a change in the demographiccomposition of the area was initiated by Zia after the success of the IslamicRevolution in Iran in 1979 in order to counter the growing sectarianconsciousness of the Shias and their demand for political and economic rights onpar with the Sunnis. This change was sought to be brought about by encouragingand facilitating the migration of Sunnis from the other provinces and theFederally-Administered Tribal Areas  (FATA) and by re-settling Sunniex-servicemen in the area. As a result, the Shias and the Ismailis, whoconstituted about 85 per cent of the population in 1948, today constitute onlyabout 53 per cent of the population. The Sunnis form about 42 per cent and theremaining five  per cent belong to other sects of Islam.

In 1948, the sons of the soil  (Ladakhis and Ladakhi-related ethnicgroups  of various hues) constituted about 80 per cent of the totalpopulation. Today, they constitute about 53 per cent. Pashtuns from theNorth-West Frontier Province (NWFP) constitute about 24 per cent,  Punjabisabout six per cent, Mirpuris from the POK about three per cent, Pashtuns fromthe FATA about one per cent,  Sindhis and Mohajirs from Sindh about one percent and Balochs less than one per cent. The provincial and ethnic origin of the remaining 11 per cent is not known.

Zia not only encouraged and facilitated the migration of people from theother areas of Pakistan to the Northern  Areas, but also assisted the anti-ShiaSunni extremist organisation Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), then known as theAnjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba, to set up its presence in the area and start a largenumber of madrasas ( religious schools) to impart religious education to thelocal Sunnis in the Deobandi-Wahabi ideology  and military training throughthe ex-servicemen in order to resist Shia militancy.

8. Since the State's expenditure on education was negligible, the madrasasbecame the main centres for the education of local children and the breedingground of extremism and terrorism. Due to the lack of economic development, theNorthern Areas have the lowest GDP growth rate in  Pakistan today, but thethird highest  GMP (Gross Mulla Product) and GJP (Gross Jihadi TerroristProduct) growth rates.The local Deobandi-Wahabi madrasas produce the thirdlargest number of Mullas after the NWFP and Balochistan  and the thirdlargest number of jihadi terrorists after Punjab and the NWFP.

The resentment of the Shias over the  change in the demographiccomposition and over  the Army-sponsored induction of Wahabism and Sunniextremist elements into the area to counter the growing political activism ofthe Shias, allegedly funded by the Iranian intelligence, created a sectariandivide between the Shias and the Sunnis in an area  where no such divideexisted before the days of  Zia. The Shias of  the Northern Areas,like their co-religionists in the Kargil area of the Ladakh Division, were knownto be a peace-loving, tolerant people.

The Sunni extremism led to the emergence of extremism in the Shia communityand this was encouraged by the Tehrik-e-Jaffria Pakistan (TJP) and its militantwing Sipah Mohammad. This also led in 1988 to demands from the Shias for thecreation of an autonamous Shia State to be called the Karakoram State. Alarmedby the signs of  militancy in  the Shia community, Zia put Pervez Musharraf in charge of the suppression of the Shias. Musharraf did soruthlessly in  1988  and was helped in this  by a group oftribesmen from the NEFP and the FATA led by Osama bin Laden.

The subsequent death of Zia in a plane crash in August,1988, was believed to be an act of retaliation by a Shia airman angered by  thisbrutal suppression.  Since then,  the  Northern Areas have seenfrequent eruptions of Shia-Sunni clashes resulting in fatal casualties overissues such as the curriculum in the local schools, which excluded lessons onthe beliefs of the Shias, discrimination against the Shias in the recruitment togovernment services etc.

After violent riots in June,2004, over the question of the school syllabuswhich the Shias viewed as anti-Shia, the Daily Times, theprestigious daily of Lahore, wrote as follows in an editorial titled 

Theplight of the Northern Areas

"The syllabus issue inGilgit continues to hang fire. On June 3, the local administration imposedcurfew in the city after clashes broke out between the police and the Shia mobsprotesting the new syllabus. Earlier, a meeting between the leaders of thecommunity and the administration had failed to break the impasse on the issue.What’s going on?

"Sporadic news has beencoming out of Gilgit about the syllabus problem for the past one year. We knowthat the Shias there are unhappy over certain passages and pictures in theofficially prescribed Islamiyat textbook. But it is a measure of the failure ofthe mainstream press that most newspapers have not bothered to dig up the facts.Every story talks about the unrest and refers to the syllabus, but no attempthas been made to provide details of what exactly is wrong with the textbook.

(Editorial ends )

Till recently, the violent activities of the Sunni extremists were directedonly against the Shias, but not against the Ismailis, but last year, the Sunniextremists started attacking the Ismailis and the schools run by the Aga khanFoundation not only in the Northern  Areas, but also in the adjoining Chitral area in protest against the  examination system followed by theFoundation. They projected it as secular and anti-Islam.

After the murder of two Ismailis in Chitral on December 27, 2004, the Daily Times (December 30,2004) wrote as follows in an editorial titled 

Chitral trouble is symptomatic of deeper malaise

"Fourmasked men killed two workers of the Aga Khan Health Services Office in Chitralon Monday December 27 and burnt four vehicles belonging to the charityorganisation. The police have registered a case against the unknown assailantsand have also arrested four persons belonging to "a banned organisation".This kind of violence has happened in the area before, but has gained momentumafter the MMA campaign against the Aga Khan Foundation in the rest of thecountry. In the adjacent Northern Areas (Gilgit) the Aga Khan charityinstitutions have come under attack regularly in the past years after beingtargeted by the radical religious elements waging jihad in Kashmir.

"Earlier this year, we had newsabout sectarian unrest in the North for almost six months. Schools were closedand there were instances of sporadic violence in areas where Shia and Ismailipopulations are concentrated, but where power and influence have passed to Sunniclerics. In Chitral, the Shia-Sunni tension dates back to 1988 when the NorthernAreas were attacked by Pushtun lashkars. A retired commissioner of Gilgit wrote:"In April 1988 armed rioters from outside entered the Gilgit environs. Elevenvillages around town were torched, their wooden structures burnt to ashes andvaluable goods looted. Around 40 persons were killed. It was clear to the Gilgitcivil administration that the raiders, who were tribals and mujahideen elements,could not have reached this remote place from Peshawar without someone’sblessing. The Frontier Constabulary, whose checkposts dot the Swat-Besham roadand the Besham-Gilgit highway, did not act to intercept the raiders".

"That year General Zia ul Haqfired Prime Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo for failing to control violence.Today, the MMA (Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of six fundamentalistparties) clerics are openly threatening ‘action’ against the Aga KhanFoundation because they don’t want it to organise a better examination systemin the country. There is no doubt that the fiery sermons delivered down-countryare having their effect in the North and have intensified sectarian conflict inChitral too. What are the grounds for the MMA’s fury? If you wave the agitpropaside, there are no grounds at all.

"It is quite obvious thatreligious prejudice was already simmering and simply wanted an outlet. Theclergy has therefore decided to confront the Aga Khan Foundation on a veryflimsy pretext. This is what happened.

"The Aga Khan UniversityExamination Board (AKU-EB) has been established through an ordinance to give thecountry an efficient system of exams that all students can afford. This was donein view of the growing popularity of the GCSE and "A" level exams conductedby the University of Cambridge in Pakistan. Each student taking these exams hasto cough up around Rs 20,000. After the Board’s programme comes into force anexaminee will pay only Rs 1,500 if he comes from a non-profit-making school andRs 3,000 if he belongs to a private school. The standard of examination will beas high as the Cambridge one, which is taken by our students because it isreliable and is recognised in the private sector. It should be noted that theAKU-EB ordinance applies so far only to the private sector and the federalinstitutions and is completely voluntary. (Education being a provincial subject,the system will apply to state-run schools only after the provinces agree.) Ifan institution is unwilling to submit to the new system it is free to stay away.How does that threaten the Pakistani society? The truth is that once theprogramme gets going everyone will enlist in it because of its efficiency.

"Although the MMA, led byJamaat-e-Islami, has no past record of criticising the Cambridge system in thecountry, the Jamaat now says the AKU-EB is set to "secularise" the countryby the introduction of this system. How is that possible through mere conduct ofsuch exams? The ordinance establishing the AKU-EB says quite clearly: "TheExamination Board shall follow the national curriculum and syllabi." There isno hidden reference here to any presumed secular brainwash as feared by theclergy. So what is the truth of the matter? The truth is that a hidden desire toexclude one more community from the pale of Islam persists after what thereligious fanatics have done to non-Sunni majority locations in the North. Whatwas happening so far in the periphery is now threatening to come to the centre.That is why General Pervez Musharraf must take firm action against the elementswhich have attacked the Aga Khan Health Services Office in Chitral and areworking under a scheme to destabilise the country by exacerbating its sectarianconflict. That is also why he should seriously think of displacing thereactionary MMA with a liberal party in his political affections." 

(Editorial ends )

At least 14 people were killed, six of them burnt alive, and 14injured during sectarian attacks in Gilgit on January 8,2005,, after which acurfew was imposed on the city and troops deployed to restore order. The clashestook place after "unidentified" people shot at the car of Agha Ziauddin, aShia community leader and imam of the main Gilgit mosque, killing two of hisbodyguards and seriously wounding him. One of the assailants was shot dead whenfire was returned. Ziauddin succumbed to his injuries subsequently leading tomore violence all over Gilgit and Baltistan and the imposition of a curfew fornearly a fortnight. Ziauddin was in the forefront of the campaign against theschool curriculum.

The Daily Times ofJanuary 10, 2005, wrote in an editorial as follows: 

"Following the incidentin Chitral, the chief of the banned Lashkar-e-Tayba, Hafiz Saeed, proclaimed inLahore that the government was "apostatising" the Muslims of the NorthernAreas, meaning that it was supporting the so-called "heresy" of Ismaili andShia Islam. The Lashkar-e-Tayba gained influence in the Northern Areas duringthe Kargil Operation in 1999, not without causing some sectarian incidents.>From being a completely Ismaili region in history, it has been injected withexternal populations through natural immigration from the rest of the country.But there have been manipulations too, as a result of which the region hassuffered violence.

"Saturday’s killing in Gilgitis a big incident recalling the 1988 massacre which accounted for 44 deathsafter "lashkars" sent in by a politician nicknamed the "devil of Hazara"entered the Shia city after travelling the Karakoram Highway which was supposedto be guarded closely by the Pakistan Army. Then it was the high tide of GeneralZia’s jihad in Afghanistan and the Shias — from Kurram Agency to theNorthern Areas — were considered "non-cooperative". That year, Parachinarand Gilgit were both subjected to invasions and hundreds of people were put todeath. The climax of the anti-Shia campaign was reached when the all-PakistanShia leader Allama Arif ul Hussaini — a Turi from Kurram Agency and closecompanion of Imam Khomeini — was murdered in Peshawar. Shockingly, ten dayslater General Zia was himself killed in an air-crash in Bahawalpur.

"Was the Musharraf government not forewarned? Sadly, it was, when last year there was unrest in the Balti Shiaareas and the local population gathered several times in protest against thetextbooks being prescribed in their schools.