Long Before The Pahalgam Attack, Kashmir Has Been The Main Battlefield Between India And Pakistan

0:00 [Music] It's been called the crown jewel of [Music] India. A valley of breathtaking beauty, poetry and [Music] promise. But for the last 75 years, Kashmir has also been the bloodiest battlefield between India and Pakistan. A prize that neither party wants to let go of. It's also called the paradise on earth, but it's been soaked in the blood of four wars and numerous terror attacks in the last 75 years. Here's a short history of India's Taj that has been stained in blood. In 1947, the British cut the

0:46 Indian subcontinent into two, India and Pakistan. Princely states like Kashmir were given a choice. Join India or Pakistan. Maharaja Haris Singh Kashmir's ruler hesitated. He wanted to stay [Music] independent. But that dream was shattered when Pakistan sent armed tribal raiders to seize Kashmir by force. Facing invasion, the Maharaja turned to India for help. So on the 26th of October 1947, he signed the instrument of accession legally making Kashmir a part of India. [Music] Indian troops were airlifted and landed in Shinagar just in time pushing the

1:32 Pakistani invaders back. But the Indian army could have pushed further. It could have liberated all of Kashmir. Instead, the political leadership at that time led by India's first prime minister Johalu called a halt and took the matter to the United Nations. A fateful mistake that would freeze the conflict. It became an open wound that fers even to this day. In 1948, a UN brokered ceasefire drew a crude line across Kashmir. It was called the ceasefire line. India got the heart of the Kashmir valley including capital Shinagar and some of the most scenic parts like Gulmmer and Sonmar. It was called Jammu and Kashmir. But Pakistan occupied onethird of the territory in what it called Azad Kashmir. India calls it

2:19 Pakistan occupied Kashmir. A ceasefire was put in place but there was no peace. Kashmir was now cut into two but its wounds would only deepen for the next 75 [Music] years. After the 1971 Bangladesh war and Pakistan's crushing defeat, East and West Pakistan got dismembered. East Pakistan which was dominated by Bengali Muslims did not want to put up with their West Pakistani brethren. The very rationale of the two nation theory was demolished. India and Pakistan then signed the Shimla agreement the following year in 1972. The ceasefire line which cut Kashmir into two became the line of control. It was meant to be respected by both sides. But in reality, Pakistan

3:06 broke that promise again and again, infiltrating terrorists, firing across borders, and funding and sponsoring statebacked Islamist Jihad, which exported terror into Indian Kashmir. Humiliated by the 1971 defeat, Pakistan's military under General Zia Hak turned to a new strategy, radical Islam. The army began to cloak itself in theocratic ideology and it exported Islamist jihad into Kashmir. This was asymmetric warfare to bleed India by a thousand cuts. Terror not tanks, terrorists, not armies were fighting this battle and Kashmir bore the brunt. By the late 1980s and the early 1990s, Kashmir was bleeding every single day.

3:52 Not a week passed without a major terror incident. The Indian army fortified its defenses and pushed in more and more troops into the valley. At one point, there were over a million soldiers in the Kashmir valley. An army meant to fight on the battlefield was being repurposed to fight in the streets and by lanes of Kashmir. Thousands of terror attacks rocked the valley in the decade of the '90s. There were almost daily bombings in Shinagar and other cities. There were kidnappings including that of the sitting home minister's daughter. It also led to an ethnic cleansing. It resulted in the 1990 mass exodus of Kashmiri pundits driving the community away from its homeland. By some estimates, more than 300,000 Kashmiri pundits were forced to flee the valley.

4:38 The situation in Kashmir had national ramifications as well. The 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament had a chilling Kashmir link. Terrorists linked to the Pakistan-based Jes Muhammad group carried out an audacious attack on India's temple of democracy. A Kashmiri terrorist Absel Guru was tried and sentenced to death by the Indian courts. India and Pakistan almost went to full-scale war. Troops were amassed at the border. Nuclear arsenals were readied. There was even an eyeball to eyeball standoff for much of 2002 called Operation Parakram. The world waited holding its breath. A few years later, things changed and there was a sliver of hope. Then Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manm Singh and then

5:24 Pakistan's ruler General Purveves Musharov quietly discussed a solution to the Kashmir issue. They even had special envoys Satendar Lamba from India and Tarik Kaziz from Pakistan to discuss the possible contours of settling the Kashmir dispute. Their four-point formula included soft and poorest borders, greater autonomy for Kashmir, economic integration on both sides of the line of control. It is the closest that India and Pakistan have come to peace in Kashmir in the last 75 years. And then this happened. Mumbai [Music] 2611. 10 Pakistani terrorists unleashed terror for 3 days in India's financial capital. It shattered a fragile piece.

6:09 166 people including foreigners died as the standoff continued for 3 days in some of Mumbai's iconic landmarks. The Taj Mahel Hotel, the Oberoy and Trident hotels. In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to make a bold move by inviting all SARKC leaders for his swearing in ceremony, including then Pakistan Prime Minister Navas Sharif. The next year, Prime Minister Modi even went to Lahore for Sharif's granddaughter's wedding. But the fragile peace was shattered with the Bhutan court and Uri attacks. In 2019, India made a big move. It abrogated article 370 thereby removing Kashmir's special status. An unfinished agenda of the partition was completed, bringing

6:54 Kashmir closer to India's mainstream. Critics called the move extremely risky. Supporters said it was a long overdue move. Four years later, the Supreme Court of India declared the decision to abrogate article 370 as constitutionally valid. In the years since the abrogation, terror attacks dropped sharply. There was record-breaking tourism which brought life back to the Kashmir Valley. Elections returned. Omar Abdullah's party won the local elections in 2024. Full statehood was promised soon. But the dark forces hovering around Kashmir have not given up. The recent Pahelgam attack targeted tourists for the first time in decades. Overnight, hotels were emptied out and flights were cancelled. The very heart

7:41 of Kashmir's new economy, which is tourism, was attacked. But something remarkable also happened along the way. Ordinary Kashmiris flooded the streets protesting against Pakistan and not against India. Kashmiris who have tasted peace and prosperity are now rejecting terror. For 75 years, Pakistan has tried to steal Kashmir with guns, terror and with lies. All of it has failed. Kashmir remains and will always remain India's crown jewel. Today Kashmir stands at a crossroads. Choose the future or be dragged back into a blood soaked past. Kashmiris have almost unanimously chosen the future.