Righting the wrongs in Ladakh-Baltistan

In July, this writer was part of a four-member delegation from Gilgit-Baltistan (the 'Northern Areas') that travelled 1,500 km to reach Srinagar to attend the first 'intra-Kashmir dialogue' of its kind to have happened in 57 years. Courtesy of the Jammu & Kashmir Government, the participants got a visa extension and permission to visit Kargil, another 203 km from Srinagar. It thus took four days and 1700 km of road travel to reach Kargil from Balitstan. The direct road would have taken no more than four hours, but that route remains closed since 1948, prey to the larger animosity of India-Pakistan which has everything to do with the Kashmiris and nothing to do with the people of Gilgit-Baltistan or Kargil-Leh. The distance from Skardu, capital of Baltistan, to Kargil town is all of 173 km. There is a stone wall built over the pre-existing road where it meets the Line of Control, a barrier which has kept 7000 families apart now for nearly six decades now. This barrier has held this culturally rich and resource-laden mountain region hostage for much too long. It is time to open the Skardu-Kargil road and to let an innocent peoples enjoy their birthright of visiting each other, to begin with. Everything else will flow from this one humanitarian act of correcting a historical wrong. The peace dividend will include renewed tourism, an energised economy far beyond these steep valleys, and a confidence built on the fact that a people and landscape have been united once again, whatever may be the designation of the frontier on the ground.

Buried under the rubble of the Kashmir conflict lies a treasure strove of the Southasian mountain complex. The high Himalaya-Karakoram is to be found not in 'Kashmir proper' but in the cross-frontier fastness stretch from Kargil-Leh on the 'Indian' side to Gilgit-Baltistan on the 'Pakistani' side. These rugged highlands cover a vast area of 145,565 sq km of the 222, 230 sq km of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu & Kashmir. Populated by Buddhist and Muslim populations speaking a mixture of tongues, this sparsely populated region is woven by common geography, history and cultural values.