Pak-occupied territories: Widespread anti-Pak protests in Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad

“No Wheat, No Electricity, No Rights.”

This sums up the life of the oppressed and deprived people of Gilgit-Baltistan, the largest region of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir state (erstwhile) and present day Ladakh. This is a post shared, along with a video of massive protests in the region, by a social media user on X.

The Gilgit-Baltistan region has been under forcible occupation since 1947 when Pakistan invaded the former State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Severe repression of the past 75 years has brought the entire region to a point where common people are pouring out on the streets against Pakistani atrocities. The situation is such that the public is forced to struggle for the most basic of needs – food, water, electricity, employment and health facilities. The tale of this region is one of deliberate neglect, economic exploitation, political suppression, deprivation of free speech and liberty, systematic demographic changes, ethnic and sectarian subjugation, illegal detentions, tortures and extra-judicial killings, disappearances of innocent people, and exploitation of natural resources at the cost of local populace.

Protests have been upscaling since the last few years as atrocities and mismanagement reach unbearable levels. Unendurable inflation and paucity of resources is now resulting in eruption of spontaneous as well as organised protests across the occupied region. The demands of the common person are simple – right to food, water to drink, their land and property, electricity, their natural wealth and above all, just governance. And despite fear of brutal repression from the Pakistan state, the people of Gilgit-Baltistan have now openly started demanding integration with Bharat.

Pakistan has employed all possible oppressive measures to clamp down on protests and protesters but to no avail. With media clampdown, people take recourse to social media to share their plight, especially through locals who’ve settled abroad, indicating the scale of agitation.

Displaying widespread anger against the Pakistan state and military, the region has been witnessing massive protests on the streets despite freezing temperatures since December last year. Tens of thousands of people have been gathering in Skardu and other areas to protest against the Pakistan occupation, leading to mass arrests.

“Skardu is witnessing the largest protest in #GilgitBaltistan history, with millions braving the bitter cold,” a social media user posted on X while sharing a video of the protests which showed thousands of people shouting slogans on the streets.

Last year in August when a Shia cleric was arrested after being falsely accused of blasphemy, the protesters openly demanded that the road to Kargil region be reopened from Skardu – in effect, integration with Bharat.

STREET PROTESTS IN FREEZING COLD

Gilgit-Baltistan is that region of Ladakh which is home to some of the world’s highest mountain ranges. The main ranges are the Karakoram and western Himalayas. Gilgit city, a broad valley near the confluence of the Gilgit and Hunza rivers in the Karakoram mountain range, is at an average height of 4900 ft. Baltistan (western Himalayas) borders Gilgit to the west, Xinjiang to the north, and Jammu and Kashmir to the south. Average altitude of Baltistan is over 10,990 ft. Winter temperatures in the region dip between minus 14 to minus 26 degree Celsius.

Gilgit-Baltistan is an extremely beautiful and picturesque region, and culturally and linguistically close to Ladakh. Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper on January 3, 2024, reported “protest demonstrations and sit-ins across Gilgit-Baltistan amid freezing temperatures against an increase in the price of subsidised wheat and other issues”. The protesters also “called for an end to the prolonged electricity crisis.” People have been demanding their share of electricity from the Diamer-Basha Dam hydel project and water usage right. The irony in Gilgit-Baltistan is that it is rich in water resources but people have very little drinking water.

Another report in the Dawn on January 28 said hundreds of individuals on motorbikes took part in the rallies staged in Hunza and Ghizer districts, ultimately joining the central protest at the Ittehad Chowk in Gilgit. The protestors received a warm welcome from the public along the route. These protests were a successful strike against the regime as thousands gathered for their daily, hours-long sit-in, reports said.

A January 27 post by X user Zaighum Abbas said: “People from all 3 divisions of Gilgit-Baltistan started marching towards provincial capital today. A sea of people is expected at the Ittehad Chowk. Demands include restoration of wheat subsidy, internal autonomy & royalty shares in Diamer Bhasha dam.” In another post regarding media blackouts, the same user said: “Remember that Pakistani media gave 24/7 coverage to the third marriage of an average cricketer. It completely blacked out voice of #GilgitBalitstan, ignoring month-long protest that has now turned to a mass movement for internal autonomy!”

In view of the mammoth protests in February, the Pakistan government was forced to suspend a 2022 finance bill that imposed various taxes on the people of the region. It also agreed to withdraw an increase in the subsidised wheat rate. Nevertheless, the protesters announced continuing the protest till the acceptance of all demands.

In August last year, massive protests broke out in Gilgit-Baltistan over the arrest of Shia cleric Agha Baqir al-Hussaini. The Shia cleric was accused of blasphemy, but those present during his speech vehemently denied any wrongdoing. In widespread protests, protesters not just demanded his release, they threatened civil war, virtually demanding opening of the Karakoram Highway and merger with Bharat. Protesters were heard shouting “Chalo, chalo Kargil chalo”. Till date, there is no update on the whereabouts of the arrested cleric.

Interestingly, massive anti-Pakistan protests were also reported from the Muzaffarabad area of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). An activist reported that the people residing near the Line of Control in PoJK were heard raising slogans during protests in September 2023 – “Ask Modi to get us freedom from Pakistan’s illegal occupation. We are dying of hunger, please come here and save us”.

NO RIGHTS ON OWN LAND, RESOURCES

Pakistan has left the people of Gilgit-Baltistan with virtually no national/state identity. The Constitution of Pakistan does not recognize Gilgit, Baltistan and other occupied areas of Jammu & Kashmir as its provinces and neither does it recognize their people as its citizens. It is aware that the world knows that Pakistan is illegally occupying Bharat’s land. As a result, the people of these occupied areas can neither vote for Pakistan’s general elections neither do they have any constitutional rights. The people do not even have ownership rights to their own land!

Pakistan has always treated Gilgit-Baltistan as its colony, exploiting its natural resources and doing everything in its power to crush the will of the indigenous people by destroying their culture, language and severely restricting access to their own resources.

The Daily K2, the leading newspaper of the region, has always carried on its masthead the phrase Sarzamin-Be-Ain Ki Awaz (Voice of the constitution-less land), a testimony to the misery of the people.

Pakistan is a Sunni-majority nation while Gilgit-Baltistan region has historically comprised ethnic and sectarian groups who are minorities in Pakistan – the Shias, Ismailis, and Noor Bakshis. Pakistan governments have always worked to change the demographic composition here by settling Sunnis in the region. For decades Pakistan has pushed settlement of Sunni Muslims from its Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces with the express purpose of ensuring entry of only those who support Pakistan’s rule.

It is reported that, as of January 2001, the old population ratio of 1:4 (non-locals to locals) had changed to 3:4 (non-locals to locals). Reports say that Shias, who constituted more than 80 per cent of Gilgit-Baltistan population in 1948, have now been reduced to less than 40 per cent.

Chinese influence in the region has also risen alarmingly. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), signed in 2013, passes through Gilgit and is a project that benefits China and Punjabi traders with little gain to the region. There’s a high presence of Chinese workers and soldiers in the region now, so much so that Chinese language has been introduced in schools in the area. With a 70 per cent stake, China is also the major shareholder in the Diamer-Bhasha dam on the Indus River in Gilgit Baltistan.

LAND AND PEOPLE OF BHARAT

The open call for integration with Bharat, coming from the Pakistan-occupied regions, has great significance. The sentiments of the public are of great importance for the democracies of the world, Bharat being the largest and most vibrant democracy.

This sentiment of the occupied people is not new, but a massive movement has taken time to build. Activist Senge H Sering, director of Institute for Gilgit-Baltistan Studies, has been openly saying, “Legally and technically, we are Indian citizens. We’ve always been Indian citizens and that is why Pakistan can never grant us constitutional rights. We have binding documents to prove that we are Indian citizens.”

Bharat too has been conceptually very clear that the entire former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part. On February 22, 1994, the Parliament passed a unanimous resolution that the occupied areas are an integral part of Bharat and that “Pakistan must vacate the areas of the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir, which they have occupied through aggression”.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reiterated this resolve in 2022 when he said: “We have only just begun walking north, our journey will be complete when we implement the resolution passed unanimously by Parliament on February 22, 1994 by reaching the remaining parts (of PoJK), Gilgit and Baltistan.” “We feel their (people of occupied areas) pain,” he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh, minister of state in Prime Minister’s Office, said much the same thing soon after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019: “There will be a time when Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan will also be part of India.” “It is very much on the agenda of the government led by Prime Minister Modi and the BJP as a political party to retrieve the illegally occupied PoJK from the control of Pakistan and restore it back to India,” Dr Jitendra Singh has said.

People on both sides of the Line of Control await that day eagerly.