Pakistan is assimilating Gilgit Baltistan as a province; the area still claimed by India (and its Constitution); a disputed area by Pakistan’s own propaganda.
All part of China’s big game it seems, to encircle India, seems like an attempt to facilitate CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor). It seems that Kashmir is no longer just a dispute between India and Pakistan; the power that calls the shots now is China.
CPEC is a game-changer; Pakistan has almost sold it’s sovereignty to China in an attempt to belittle India. I wonder who is the big loser on this one. CPEC is funded by Chinese credit lines, largely owned by Chinese and protected by Chinese marines till Gawadar port; literally a Chinese territory passing through its middle is hardly good news for Pakistan. India loses all future hopes to have road connectivity with the Asia mainland unless it scuttles this CPEC and has its own corridors to Afghanistan and Iran. Or India can use Balochistan to scuttle CPEC till Pakistan comes to India’s terms on Kashmir.
Suffice to say now that ever since CPEC has been announced, anything that happens in Kashmir now actively involves China as a third party. Seen positively, the Kashmir dispute’s resolution might be imminent now because China would not want to economically invest in a disputed area, it could nudge Pakistan to a settlement.
If Manmohan Singh was the PM, we would have expected India to remain silent on this. Since Modi is the PM, he has blown his trumpet so loudly that we expect him to make a brouhaha over this. So if Modi is silent till now, it is possible that Gilgit-Baltistan’s announcement as a province of Pakistan could be a secret deal with India, for India to reciprocally declare Laddakh and Jammu as separate province; leaving just the two valleys of Srinagar and POK as regions of dispute. On the other hand, if this is not a secret deal between the three nations, then this could be just the perfect excuse for Modi to have a war with Pakistan, something that might be needed to extend his rule beyond 2019.
Postscript: The Kashmir Azadi fighters now need to understand that Pakistan is now assimilating their so called Azad regions into their country. This Azadi is a mirage, Pakistan is out to grab them by the throat. Time to be realistic and chose the more tolerant India rather than a mullah driven autocratic Pakistan.
Musings 