MOSABJA
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2007
- Messages
- 323
- Reaction score
- 0
CHAKOTHI: Swollen with melting Himalayan snows, the Jhelum River rushes fiercely westwards across this point of the invisible Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
Last November it carried into Pakistani territory the swollen body of a Kashmiri man in his twenties, torture marks still visible, according to the Pakistani military. Never identified, he was number 812 in the rivers grim cargo since 1990. All of them apparently in their 20s and 30s, all of them bearing signs of torture. We believe they had been held in interrogation cells by Indian security forces, brutalised, and then thrown in to the river, to send a clear signal downstream, Lt Col Imran Ahmed, military chief of Chakothi sector on the LoC, said.
They are counted among the 89,967 Kashmiris whom Pakistan says have been killed since 1990 by Indian troops trying to quash a violent 14-year rebellion against Indian rule in the Muslim-majority state.
The insurgency brought the nuclear foes to the brink of their fourth war last year, sparking worldwide fears of a nuclear conflict. The ferocious currents of the Jhelum, the Indus to the north and the Chenab to the south, could also bring South Asia to the brink of a nuclear holocaust.
The three rivers, which start in or run through Indian-held Kashmir and feed Pakistan, lay behind the description of Kashmir by Pakistans founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah as Shah rag-e-Pakistan (the jugular vein of Pakistan). The Jhelum in particular irrigates the Punjab, Pakistans largest and most populous province, and its breadbasket. Reducing or diverting its flow could lead to economic strangulation of Pakistan one of the red lines considered by Pakistanns military a trigger for unleashing its nuclear arsenal.
The Punjab is particularly dependent on it. Ultimately the net result, if it was reduced, would be economic strangulation, Lt Col Ahmed said.
Definitely it would trigger confrontation.
Sardar Anwar Khan, a former major general who is now president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, said manipulating the Jhelum, Chenab or Indus rivers could spark an attack. If you are dying, if your survival is at stake then anything can happen, he said.
Many people say that in the future wars may be fought over water. You cannot ignore that because the whole economy of Pakistan is centred on the water that flows from Kashmir.
All the water which irrigates Pakistani territory comes from Kashmir ... Pakistans vital economic interests are linked with Kashmir. Under a World Bank-brokered Indus Water Treaty, signed with Pakistan in 1960, India is allowed limited use of the Pakistan-bound rivers for agriculture and power generation. The Baghliar hydroelectric plant under construction by India on the Chenab River is currently threatening the treaty. India has refused to allow Pakistan, which fears the plant would reduce water flow, to inspect it. The Indians have already indicated they are constructing dams which would manipulate the water, President Khan claimed.
So is Pakistan going to stay put and wait until India diverts the river? Pakistan would be devastated.
Pakistans military has little trust in India sticking to the treaty. The Indians are deviating from whatever they had agreed in 1960. They can alter the flow, Lt Col Ahmed said.
PAKISTAN's OPTIONS.
1)Pakistan has only few options.First is to reverse Musharraf's policy of Silence on Kashmir and say to Indians openely that things like Kishenganga dam.Baglihar dam and wullar lake are not acceptable.
If India continues its violation that Pakistan should start Supporting the Kashmiri Jihad again.
2)Do extensive studies on how the Major rivers of Pakistan originating in China could be diverted so as to reach Pakistan directly instead of ever passing through India.
Like Indus,Sutlej originate in China.
Besides it Major tributaries of Ghanga like Ghaghara river,Kosi river and Gandaki river also originate in CHina.
Pakistani is lucky as it still has 40 % of Kashmir occupied by India in 47 .If it had not been that then Pakistan couldnt even survive.
Last November it carried into Pakistani territory the swollen body of a Kashmiri man in his twenties, torture marks still visible, according to the Pakistani military. Never identified, he was number 812 in the rivers grim cargo since 1990. All of them apparently in their 20s and 30s, all of them bearing signs of torture. We believe they had been held in interrogation cells by Indian security forces, brutalised, and then thrown in to the river, to send a clear signal downstream, Lt Col Imran Ahmed, military chief of Chakothi sector on the LoC, said.
They are counted among the 89,967 Kashmiris whom Pakistan says have been killed since 1990 by Indian troops trying to quash a violent 14-year rebellion against Indian rule in the Muslim-majority state.
The insurgency brought the nuclear foes to the brink of their fourth war last year, sparking worldwide fears of a nuclear conflict. The ferocious currents of the Jhelum, the Indus to the north and the Chenab to the south, could also bring South Asia to the brink of a nuclear holocaust.
The three rivers, which start in or run through Indian-held Kashmir and feed Pakistan, lay behind the description of Kashmir by Pakistans founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah as Shah rag-e-Pakistan (the jugular vein of Pakistan). The Jhelum in particular irrigates the Punjab, Pakistans largest and most populous province, and its breadbasket. Reducing or diverting its flow could lead to economic strangulation of Pakistan one of the red lines considered by Pakistanns military a trigger for unleashing its nuclear arsenal.
The Punjab is particularly dependent on it. Ultimately the net result, if it was reduced, would be economic strangulation, Lt Col Ahmed said.
Definitely it would trigger confrontation.
Sardar Anwar Khan, a former major general who is now president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, said manipulating the Jhelum, Chenab or Indus rivers could spark an attack. If you are dying, if your survival is at stake then anything can happen, he said.
Many people say that in the future wars may be fought over water. You cannot ignore that because the whole economy of Pakistan is centred on the water that flows from Kashmir.
All the water which irrigates Pakistani territory comes from Kashmir ... Pakistans vital economic interests are linked with Kashmir. Under a World Bank-brokered Indus Water Treaty, signed with Pakistan in 1960, India is allowed limited use of the Pakistan-bound rivers for agriculture and power generation. The Baghliar hydroelectric plant under construction by India on the Chenab River is currently threatening the treaty. India has refused to allow Pakistan, which fears the plant would reduce water flow, to inspect it. The Indians have already indicated they are constructing dams which would manipulate the water, President Khan claimed.
So is Pakistan going to stay put and wait until India diverts the river? Pakistan would be devastated.
Pakistans military has little trust in India sticking to the treaty. The Indians are deviating from whatever they had agreed in 1960. They can alter the flow, Lt Col Ahmed said.
PAKISTAN's OPTIONS.
1)Pakistan has only few options.First is to reverse Musharraf's policy of Silence on Kashmir and say to Indians openely that things like Kishenganga dam.Baglihar dam and wullar lake are not acceptable.
If India continues its violation that Pakistan should start Supporting the Kashmiri Jihad again.
2)Do extensive studies on how the Major rivers of Pakistan originating in China could be diverted so as to reach Pakistan directly instead of ever passing through India.
Like Indus,Sutlej originate in China.
Besides it Major tributaries of Ghanga like Ghaghara river,Kosi river and Gandaki river also originate in CHina.
Pakistani is lucky as it still has 40 % of Kashmir occupied by India in 47 .If it had not been that then Pakistan couldnt even survive.
