Kashmir And Impasse At The United Nations

Kashmir And Impasse At The United Nations

By Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai

Kashmir is a dispute recognized by the United Nations. It holds the infamy as the most dangerous place on the planet. The 76-year-old conflict in that disputed, divided, devastated, and illegally occupied territory is the bone of contention of the nuclear tension in the region of South Asia. Without a just and lasting peace in Kashmir that vindicates self‑determination, trying to reduce missile and nuclear arsenals, and bring normalcy in the region of South Asia will be an exercise in futility.

By all customary moral and legal yardsticks, 23 million people of Jammu & Kashmir enjoy a right to self-determination. The princely state, after British suzerainty for a century, achieved independence on August 15, 1947, when British jurisdiction lapsed. At that time, Kashmir had chosen neither accession to Pakistan nor to India, which had been created as separate…