70TH INDEPENDENCE DAY OF GILGIT BALTISTAN BEING CELEBRATED TODAY
Gilgit-Baltistan liberated from Dogra forces and declared independent State on 1st November 1947.
Gilgit
Baltistan, Pakistan borders province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, Azad
Kashmir to the southwest, Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the northwest, the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China to the north, and the Indian state
of Jammu and Kashmir to the southeast.
Rock art and petroglyphs
<script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({ google_ad_client: "ca-pub-4722863311309106", enable_page_level_ads: true }); </scripThere are more than 50,000 pieces of rock art (petroglyphs) and inscriptions all along the Karakoram Highway in Gilgit Baltistan, concentrated at ten major sites between Hunza and Shatial. The carvings were left by various invaders, traders, and pilgrims who passed along the trade route, as well as by locals. The earliest date back to between 5000 and 1000 BCE, showing single animals, triangular men and hunting scenes in which the animals are larger than the hunters. These carvings were pecked into the rock with stone tools and are covered with a thick patina that proves their age. The ethnologist Karl Jettmar has pieced together the history of the area from various inscriptions and recorded his findings in Rock Carvings and Inscriptions in the Northern Areas of Pakistan[1] and the later released Between Gandhara and the Silk Roads - Rock Carvings Along the Karakoram Highway. Many of these carvings and inscriptions will be inundated and/or destroyed when the planned Basha-Diamir dam is built and the Karakoram Highway widened.
British Raj
Before the
independence of Pakistan and the partition of India, Maharaja Hari Singh, the
Hindu Dogra ruler of Jammu, extended his rule to Gilgit and Baltistan with the
help of British. In 1935 he leased the region to British for an amount of
75,000Rs. After WW II British influence started declining. British despite
decline in its rule, handled the situation cleverly and gave two options to the
states in British Raj under their rule to join any of the two emerging states,
India and Pakistan. Taking advantage of the situation the populace of
Gilgit-Baltistan started revolting, the people of Ghizer were first to raise
the flag of revolution, and gradually the masses of entire region stood up
against the rule of Mahraja, again British played an important role in war of
independence of Gilgit-Baltistan.
End of the princely state
On 26 October
1947, Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, faced with a tribal invasion
from Pakistan, signed the Instrument of Accession, joining India. Gilgit's
population did not favour the State's accession to India. Sensing their
discontent, Major William Brown, the Maharaja's commander of the Gilgit Scouts,
mutinied on 1 November 1947, overthrowing the Governor Ghansara Singh. The
bloodless coup d'etat was planned by Brown to the last detail under the code
name `Datta Khel'. A provisional government (Aburi Hakoomat) was established by
the Gilgit locals with Raja Shah Rais Khan as the president and Mirza Hassan
Khan as the commander-in-chief. However, Major Brown had already telegraphed
Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan asking Pakistan to take over. The Pakistani political
agent, Khan Mohammad Alam Khan, arrived on 16 November and took over the
administration of Gilgit.
According
to Brown
Alam replied [to
the locals],: you are a crowd of fools led astray by a madman. I shall not
tolerate this nonsense for one instance... And when the Indian Army starts
invading you there will be no use screaming to Pakistan for help, because you
won't get it.'... The provisional government faded away after this encounter
with Alam Khan.
The provisional
government lasted 16 days. Scholar Yaqoob Khan Bangash states that the people
of Gilgit as well as those of Chilas, Koh Ghizr, Ishkoman, Yasin, Punial, Hunza
and Nagar joined Pakistan by choice.
After taking
control of Gilgit, the Gilgit Scouts along with Azad irregulars moved towards
Baltistan and Ladakh and captured Skardu by May 1948. They successfully blocked
the Indian reinforcements and subsequently captured Dras and Kargill as well,
cutting off the Indian communications to Leh in Ladakh. The Indian forces mounted
an offensive in Autumn 1948 and recaptured all of Kargil district. Baltistan
region, however, came under Gilgit control.
On 1 January
1948, India took the issue of Jammu and Kashmir to the United Nations Security
Council. In April 1948, the Council passed a resolution calling for Pakistan to
withdraw from all of Jammu and Kashmir and India to reduce its forces to the
minimum level, following which a plebiscite would be held to ascertain the
people's wishes. However, no withdrawal was ever carried out, India insisting
that Pakistan had to withdraw first and Pakistan contending that there was no
guarantee that India would withdraw afterwards.[10] Gilgit-Baltastan and a
western portion of the state called Azad Jammu and Kashmir) have remained under
the control of Pakistan since then
Part of Pakistan
1947 to 1970
Government of Pakistan established Gilgit Agency and Baltistan Agency. In 1970
Northern areas council established by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Gilgit Baltistan
was directly administrated by federal government and it was called FANA(Federal
administrated northern areas). In 1963, Pakistan ceded a part of Hunza-Gilgit
called Raskam and the Shaksgam Valleyof Baltistan region to the China pending
settlement of the dispute over Kashmir. This ceded area is also known as the
Trans-Karakoram Tract. The Pakistani parts of Kashmir to the north and west of
the cease-fire line established at the end of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947,
or the Line of Control as it later came to be called, were divided into the
Northern Areas (72,971 km²) in the north and the Pakistani state of Azad
Kashmir (13,297 km²) in the south. The name "Northern Areas" was
first used by the United Nations to refer to the northern areas of Kashmir.
Gilgit
Baltistan, which was most recently known as the Northern Areas, presently
consists of seven districts, has a population approaching one million, has an
area of approximately 28,000 square miles (73,000 km2), and shares borders with
China, Afghanistan, and India.
The local
Northern Light Infantry is the army unit that participated in the 1999 Kargil
conflict. More than 500 soldiers were believed to have been killed and buried
in the Northern Areas in that action. Lalak Jan, a soldier from Yasin Valley,
was awarded Pakistan's most prestigious medal, the Nishan-e-Haider, for his
courageous actions during the Kargil conflict.
Self-governing status and present-day Gilgit
Baltistan
On 29 August
2009, the Gilgit Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order, 2009, was
passed by the Pakistani cabinet and later signed by the President of Pakistan.
The order granted self-rule to the people of the former Northern Areas, now
renamed Gilgit Baltistan, by creating, among other things, an elected
legislative assembly. There has been some criticism and opposition to this move
in India and Gilgit Baltistan region of Pakistan
Gilgit Baltistan
United Movement while rejecting the new package demanded that an independent
and autonomous legislative assembly for Gilgit Baltistan should be formed with
the installation of local authoritative government as per the UNCIP
resolutions, where the people of Gilgit Baltistan will elect their president
and the prime minister.
In early
September 2009, Pakistan signed an agreement with the People's Republic of China
for a mega energy project in Gilgit–Baltistan which includes the construction
of a 7,000-megawatt dam at Bunji in the Astore District.[16] This also resulted
in protest from India, although Indian concerns were immediately rejected by
Pakistan, which claimed that the Government of India has no locus standi in the
matter, effectively ignoring the validity of the princely state's Instrument of
Accession on October 26, 1947.
On 29 September
2009, the Prime Minister, while addressing a huge gathering in Gilgit–Baltistan,
announced a multi-billion rupee development package aimed at the socio-economic
uplifting of people in the area. Development projects will include the areas of
education, health, agriculture, tourism and the basic needs of life
