Kashmir back in global spotlight: Pak diplomats

KARACHI: The Pahalgam attack has not only reignited diplomatic tensions between India and Pakistan but also cast fresh international scrutiny on the unresolved Occupied Kashmir dispute, say Pakistani diplomats who warn that India’s aggressive rhetoric and response risk sparking a wider crisis.

In a conversation with The News, Pakistan’s former representative to the UN and twice ambassador to the US Dr Maleeha Lodhi talks about the Pahalgam attack in terms of diplomacy and what this could possibly mean for the Kashmiri issue in the international arena. According to Dr Lodhi, “Although the terrorist attack is unfortunate, top Western publications such as The Economist and New York Times are saying it punctures the Indian government’s claim to have brought stability and normalcy to Kashmir”. She adds that this has “turned the spotlight on Kashmir” though the loss of “innocent lives is truly regrettable”.

For former ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel, the Pahalgam attack and India’s strong reaction “have already highlighted the continued existence of Kashmiri resistance. The news has hit headlines all over the world”.

Kakakhel explains that there is a “near-consensus” in Islamabad that the attack “may be a ‘false flag operation’ meant to create a justification for anti-Pakistan measures”.

On what Pakistan’s reaction has been or should be diplomatically, Kakakhel says that it is unfortunate that ties have hit “rock bottom”.

Dr Lodhi sees Islamabad’s stance as having been “principled and consistent on Kashmir being an international dispute”. She says Pakistan’s retaliatory actions have been “carefully calibrated to match India’s moves”, and warns that any “kinetic action” by India would trigger a Pakistani response, leading to “a full-blown crisis”.

Former ambassador Saeed Khalid sees India’s response as disproportionate since he says the “overall level of militancy is way down”. Ambassador Khalid’s reading of the situation is that Indian PM Modi may have “other (political) motives”. It could be perhaps “an attempt to make up for India’s loss of face in Bangladesh”, says Khalid who also adds that the hype has been raised by India, whose media “is egging on [its government] for military action”.

However, per Khalid, Pakistan’s response “could have been shorter” so as to leave some “margin of manoeuvre”.

And what about Occupied Kashmir as an international issue? Ambassador Saeed Khalid suggests this is not exactly going India’s way: “The world media is presenting the developments as rising tensions over Kashmir. This is counter to India’s Kashmir-is-internal mantra”.

The issue for India is that “despite its claims to the contrary, Kashmiris have not accepted the August 2019 measures that stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its statehood and special status”, explains Ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel. In fact, all the recently elected members of the assembly from the Kashmir Valley are united in demanding the restoration of Kashmir’s special status, Kakakhel says, adding that the abolition of Article 35 is “widely resented in the Valley”.

And what next? Kakakhel hopes the situation does not deteriorate further. “Indian measures must not cross the threshold set by Pakistan before it adopts extreme measures for its security.....friendly countries should intervene to prevent any further aggravation of tension”.

Providing some context from India is Ravi Nitesh, founder of Aaghaz-e-Dosti (An IndoPak Friendship Initiative). Nitesh tells The News that there is a lot of public anger in India against what has happened in Pahalgam and that “much pressure is mounting upon the government”.

He suggests that the Indian government has taken “non-violent, diplomatic actions” and that Pakistan’s reciprocity “is escalating the tension”, adding that, given the volatility of the situation, “nothing can be predicted concretely right now”.

Nitesh hopes India and Pakistan use diplomacy in the coming days, while also saying that in this “Pakistan has a greater responsibility than India because in this case, India is a victim”.

Various other diplomats have also weighed in on the situation on other forums. Talking to Al Jazeera’s Abid Hussain, former Pakistani high commissioner to India Salman Bashir said that: “In Pakistan-India situations, gestures like Shehbaz Sharif announcing a visit to New Delhi are doable. The pendulum has swung too far. We need to do whatever is necessary to bring things under control”.

Another former Pakistani envoy to India Abdul Basit posted on X (Twitter) that there was no doubt that “without settling the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, there is no room for normal relations between Pakistan and India”. All this is unfolding against the backdrop of a long and contentious history between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, with Occupied Kashmir continuing to lie at the heart of their disputes.