AUTUMN COLORS IN HIMALAYA, HINDUKUSH, KARAKORAM & GILGIT BALTISTAN - 2017

AUTUMN COLORS IN HIMALAYA, HINDUKUSH, KARAKORAM & GILGIT BALTISTAN

© Copyrights: Nasar Photography

1st November Independence Day of Gilgit-Baltistan [History]

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

Cultural identity: G-B celebrates ‘Cap Day’ on 1st October.

Cultural identity: G-B celebrates ‘Cap Day’ on 1^st October.

People across Gilgit-Baltistan will don their traditional headgear of a white woolen cap with a feather in it to mark the first ever ‘Cap Day’ yesterday (Saturday).

The region’s government had in April this year announced to observe the event annually in light of the rising number of tourists visiting the valley.

“We have decided to introduce our culture to the people living outside G-B and to foreign visitors,” Chief Minister Hafeezur Rehman said while announcing the annual day. “This is our identity and all government officials will put on the traditional cap on this day every year,” Rehman told The Express Tribune.

He added that special events will be held in all 10 districts of G-B to highlight the region’s rich culture. The region and the nascent tourism industry suffered a fatal blow after gunmen attacked the Nanga Parbat base camp in 2013, killing 10 foreigners.

Over 10,000 people associated with the tourism industry in G-B lost their jobs in the aftermath of the attack.

But with tourists returning in increasing numbers recently, with over 500,000 visiting G-B last year and an even greater number this year, the government decided to hold a ‘Cap Day’  day as an attraction and as a celebration of local culture.

Initially, the day was set to be marked on September 1 to coincide with autumn, but the date was later changed. The confusion saw many observed the day unofficially.

Weaves of history

The traditional Gilgiti cap is called “Shanti-Khoi” in the local language.

The soft, round and flat-topped cap is usually white in colour and is made from the finest wool. They are usually decorated with either a tuft of feathers or a flower.

Its history can be traced back to the days when the region was still divided among small, but fiercely independent princely states which existed before 1947. The cap itself is believed to have become a mainstay of the region during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Shanti-Khoi was conceptualised to escape the freezing winds of a region that sees the temperature drop  to 25 degree centigrade below freezing point during winters.

Considered the official headgear of G-B, no traditional formal dress in this mountain-locked region is considered complete without the cap.

Such is its importance that was incorporated into the official uniforms of the Gilgit  scouts during pre-partition days, a force commended by Major William Brown and it is still part of the uniform of Northern Light Infantry Regiment (NLI) today.

However, the traditional cap varies slightly from the ones worn in the rest of the region with locals identifying at least six different types of caps used in G-B.

“The cap of every valley is slightly different from others in shape and colour,” said Imitaz Wali, a resident of Gilgit.

Wali, said that the cap  worn in Baltistan differs in style and materials from the cap in Diamer and Ghizer. “By style I mean way the cap is worn.”

However, of late the tradition of wearing the cap among the younger generation has decreased and officials believe that the cap day would help revive the tradition.