Freedom Struggle

Freedom struggle- At Glance

People of Jammu and Kashmir have been struggling for their freedom from 1819. At no point of time did people of this state spreading over 84000 Kilometers reconcile to the oppressive rule of the alien rulers. In 1865 people raised organized voice against oppressive Dogra rulers and twenty eight people were drowned and ever since that people of the state have been fighting against their subjugation. It was in 1924 the protests against the oppressive ruler took an organized shape. At 9.30 A.M. on October 27, 1947 Indian troops landed in Kashmir and ever since that people of Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian Occupation.
1923
1924
  • October: Muslim notables, M/s Noor shah Naqash Bandi & Saaduddin Shawl in Srinagar present memorandum to British Viceroy regarding Maharaja's misrule and set forth popular demands. This is sequel to labour strike in state-run silk factory in which workers were charged by troops commanded by Hari Singh, then the heir apparent, and their leader tortured to death. Many Protestors drowned in Kut-kul (a tributary of River Jehlum) following cane charging by Dogra Forces.
 
1925
  • March: Leader of the signatories, Saaduddin Shawl is deported from the state..
  • April: First meeting of Kashmiri expatriates and other Muslim leaders in Lahore is held to muster support for restoration of rights to Kashmiri Muslims.
 
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
  • April: Police official stops the Khutba (sermon) at the congregational religious service of Muslims in Jammu on the grotesque pretext that it alludes to Quranic passages about Moses and Pharaoh and thus indirectly advocates sedition. Protest by worshippers in Jammu led by Chowdhary Ghulam Abbas is held to express vehement disapproval of police action .Protest are also held in Srinagar and major towns.
  • Few educated Muslim Citizens including Kh. Ghulam Ahmad Ashai, Mufti Jalaluddin, Mohd. Rajab and Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah form a reading room with the purpose of educating common masses about the happenings in Kashmir.
  • June: At a large public meeting in Srinagar, Seven representatives form an adhoc group to spearhead movement for restoration of rights to Kashmiri Muslims. These include, , Saaduddin Shawl, Mirwaiz Muhammad Yousuf Shah, Shaikh Mohd. Abdullah, Munshi Shuhabuddin, Hussan Shah Jalali, Mirwaiz Hamdani & Kh. Ghulam Ahmad Ashai.
  • At a rally organized by the seven representatives at Khankhai-Mauallah volunteers(Dictators) would court arrest for seeking restoration of rights for Muslims. Post one such rally a young man by the name of Abdul Qadeer exhorted people to resort to Direct action against Maharaja. He is arrested & tried for sedition.
  • Thousands of people gather at the Central Jail Srinagar to witness the in-camera trial of Abdul Qadeer. The people demand his open trial. The Dogra forces order the masses to leave.This creates a commotion and Dogra police open fire on people resulting in 22 Kashmiris embracing martyrdom This gory episode proves to be a milestone in the popular struggle for restoration of rights. The mass agitation begins. Shaikh Abdullah, along with other leaders spearheading the movement are arrested.
  • August: Kashmir Committee is formed in Lahore to muster support for Kashmir movement led by Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, renowned poet-philosopher. Meanwhile, All-India Muslim League adopts resolution commending the gallant struggle carried on both inside and outside Kashmir for people’s right.
  • September: Kashmiri leaders are rearrested. On September 24, a large number of young men demonstrate on Srinagar streets. They shout slogans, “we will fight the Maharaja's soldiers". Maharaja responds by display of military armour in the city the next day. Law is promulgated providing for flogging of Muslims (TIKTIKI) as punishment for political activity. Ordinary citizens are bludgeoned by troops if they fail to shout 'Maharaja ki jai' - victory to Maharaja.
  • October: British Viceroy urges Maharaja to adopt conciliatory policy. Leaders are released and asked to present demands, which they do on October 19. Excerpts.
  • "We demand same liberties as prevail in British India ... equality of rights regardless of religion ... better terms for labour ... a representative form of government ... the State cannot claim proprietary rights over land merely because Kashmir was purchased from the British."
  • November: November 1931-January 1932, No tax campaign is started in Mirpur. Armed encounters occur in Kotli between Maharaja's soldiers and local guerillas. Maharaja's administration in areas now in Azad Kashmir collapses. British Indian government intervenes, moves troops to Jammu and Mirpur. Muslim political party in Punjab - Jamaat-i-Ahrar - launches movement for unarmed "civil invasion" of State. Around 30,000 people are arrested to prevent them from crossing the border.
  • The Commission recommends limited reforms including establishment of legislative assembly. Kashmiri Pandits denounce their representative Prem Nath Bazaz for supporting reforms. Hindu newspapers in India condemn the movement in Kashmir as evidence of "dishonorable Muslim communalism". Delegation of Hindu leaders in India meets Viceroy stressing strategic importance of Kashmir to India against so-called pan-Islamic wave.
 
1932
  • October: First mass organization in the State - the Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference is established. At its session in Srinagar, Shaikh Abdullah is elected President and Chowdhary Ghulam Abbas General Secretary.
 
1933
1934
  • January: Mass protests are staged against limitation of franchise to three per cent of population for proposed legislative assembly and restrictions on assembly's powers. At a meeting of Muslim Conference held in Sialkot, Chowdhary Ghulam Abbas is designated as leader of the campaign. Abdullah distances himself from campaign. Abbas is arrested.
  • September: State legislative assembly(Praja Sabha) is established by Maharaja. Muslims constituting 77 per cent of population are allotted 32 seats in a house of 75, out of which 21 are elected and 11 nominated by Maharaja. Muslim Conference captures 20 seats.
 
1935
  • October: Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas is elected President of Muslim Conference. With Hindu leaders attending as observers at annual convention, Abbas appeals to non-Muslims "to join the struggle for emancipation of our country". Muslim Conference members of State Assembly (19 out of 21 elected members) resign in protest against Assembly's restricted powers.
 
1936
  • May: Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah visits Srinagar. Though visit was private, yet both factions of Muslim Conference (led respectively by Abdullah and Mirwaiz Yusuf Shah) invite him to address large public meetings organised in his honour. The Great Quaid counsels promoting harmony between Muslim majority and Hindu minority.
 
1937
  • September: Abdullah again elected President of Muslim Conference. Urges "common platform" of Muslims and non-Muslims and demands that State representatives to Indian federation be chosen by people and not nominated by Maharaja. (contemplated in Government of India Act-1935 before demand for establishment of separate federation of Muslim majority states - Pakistan - was formulated by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah).
 
1938
  • June: Working Committee of Muslim Conference recommends change in name and constitution of party. Chowdhary Ghulam Abbas opposes the move, which was deferred for one year.
 
1939
  • September : Maharaja's Prime Minister, Gopalaswamy Ayyangar - a Hindu bureaucrat from Madras - promulgates constitution providing not only for Maharaja's unrestricted veto over legislative assembly's enactments but also for any enactment by Maharaja himself to be considered as if made by assembly. Abdullah establishes understanding with Ayyangar that, in return for refraining from any active campaign for responsible government, he will be supported in his fight against his political opponents - former leaders of Muslim Conference. On his advice, National Conference members abstain from vote on bill abolishing discrimination against Muslims in arms licences, Abdullah cultivates closer relations with Congress leaders, particularly Jawaharlal Nehru, criticises Muslim League but later disclaims remarks.
  • October: Special session of Muslim Conference decides to convert party into National Conference. Chowdhary Ghulam Abbas endorses move on conditions that, inter alia, (a) it will not mean affiliation with Indian National Congress against Muslim League; (b) non- Muslims will participate in campaign for representative government; and (c) Conference will continue to seek end of discrimination against Muslims. Some prominent Hindu leaders, including Prem Nath Bazaz, join National Conference but Hindu masses keep aloof.
 
1940
  • April: Gopalaswamy Ayyangar, Prime Minister since 1937, quits. 'Deliverance Day' observed by dissident sections of National Conference. Bazaz, virtually co-founder with Abdullah, also resigns, expressing disillusionment. Abbas re-establishes Muslim Conference pleading as ground non- fulfilment of conditions set for conversion of party into National Conference. Protests against Ayyangar's statement that Kashmir would be first to accede to Indian Union.
 
1941
1942
1943
  • April: Gopalaswamy Ayyangar, Prime Minister since 1937, quits. 'Deliverance Day' observed by dissident sections of National Conference. Bazaz, virtually co-founder with Abdullah, also resigns, expressing disillusionment. Abbas re-establishes Muslim Conference pleading as ground non- fulfilment of conditions set for conversion of party into National Conference. Protests against Ayyangar's statement that Kashmir would be first to accede to Indian Union.
 
1944
  • National Conference issues radical manifesto called "new Kashmir" contemplating drastic social and economic measures. At the same time - as against Muslim Conference position of non-cooperation with Maharaja's government, agrees to inclusion of one nominee of National Conference in Maharaja's cabinet.
  • Quaid-e-Azam visits Kashmir on joint invitation of Muslim Conference and National Conference. Attempts to bring about reconciliation. Advises maintaining single Muslim representative organisation which, on basis of full safeguards for rights of non-Muslim minorities, should arrive at honourable settlement with their representative organisations regarding campaign for responsible government. Abdullah rejects advice publicly and criticises Quaid-e-Azam.
  • June 17: Quaid-e-Azam addresses largest ever public meeting in Srinagar at Muslim Conference convention. Maharaja declines to meet Quaid-e-Azam.
 
1945
  • Jawaharlal Nehru accompanied by two Muslim leaders of Indian Congress, visits Kashmir. Faces hostile demonstrations when party taken out in boat procession up Jehlum river. Demonstrations larger and more vehement than on his earlier visit in 1940.
 
1946
  • National Conference makes declaration called 'Quit Kashmir' against Maharaja drawing attention of British government to Kashmir's claim to freedom on withdrawal of British power.
  • May: Abdullah arrested. Nehru comes to Kashmir as Abdullah's defence counsel, is arrested and ordered to leave State. Hindu press, however, condemns 'Quit Kashmir' movement; Achhariya Kriplani, one of top Congress leaders, calls campaign "mischievous". Abdullah, in his statement in court during trial, tones down 'Quit Kashmir' declaration. Agitation peters out.
  • July: R.C. Kak, Maharaja's Prime Minister, meets Congress leaders in India. Nehru permitted to revisit Srinagar, meets Abdullah in jail and confers with Maharaja's Raj Guru, or head priest.
  • July: Muslim Conference adopts Azad Kashmir resolution, calling for end of autocratic government and claims right of people to elect their own constituent assembly.
  • October: Chaudry Ghulam Abbas arrested.
 
1947
  • June 11: Quaid-e-Azam declares policy of not putting any pressure on any state in making its choice.
  • July 19: Convention of Muslim Conference urges Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan.
  • August 11:British Indian government returns Gilgit, leased to it in 1934, to Maharaja.
  • August 14/15: Pakistan and India are established as sovereign states. British supremacy over princely states ends. Standstill Agreement between Kashmir and Pakistan takes place for continuance of existing arrangements of trade, communications and services which had been maintained with outgoing British Indian government (virtually all inherited by Pakistan).India refuses to sign the standstill agreement.
  • August 17: Red Cliff Award is published. (Cyril Red Cliff, a London barrister, headed Boundary Commission to establish partition lines between Pakistan and India in divided provinces of Punjab and Bengal.) By splitting Gurdaspur district - a Muslim-majority area allotted to Pakistan in 'notional division', the Award provided India with road link to Kashmir and made it practicable for Maharaja to accede to India or establish military alliance with it. Maharaja, having excluded option of joining Pakistan, adopts three-point strategy.
  • (i) to make road to India serviceable - all existing roads lead to Pakistan; (ii) to concentrate his troops in areas bordering Pakistan to deter insurgencies and seal frontier against incursions; (iii) to establish close working relationship with Indian government without formal accession, if possible and with it, if necessary.
  • August 26:Armed uprising against Maharaja's forces begins in Poonch. Fighting spreads quickly throughout the area inhabited by ex-servicemen of British Indian army.
  • September 29: Shaikh Abdullah is released by Maharaja's "act of royal clemency" while Chowdhary Ghulam Abbas continues to remain incarcerated.
  • Armed bands of extremist militant Hindu party in India, the Rashstrya Sevak Sang (RSS) enter Jammu and are deployed at various places, including Uri and Muzaffarabad in Kashmir. Killing of Muslims is accelerated in interior of Hindu-majority areas - Maharaja himself giving Go-head signal at place named Deva Vatala. His Prime Minster Mehr Chand Mahajan advises Hindus to change the demographic Character of Jammu by Killing Muslims in large numbers. Around five lac Muslims are killed, their property looted & women raped. British daily "the London Times" quoting its special correspondent in India states that the Maharaja, under his own supervision, got assassinated 2,37,000 Muslims, using military forces in Jammu area. The editor of "Statesman" Ian Stephen, in his book "Horned Moon" writes that till the end of autumn 1947 , more than 200,000 Muslims were murdered in one go. Even Horse Cart Drivers(Tongawallas) from Kashmir who had transported Hindus from Kashmir to Jammu at great personal risk were killed near Nagrota. Gandhi later acknowledges the injustices to Muslims and puts the blame on Mahraja & his Prime Minster.
  • October 12: Pakistan government sends telegram to Mahajan about "large number of villages (in Poonch) that can be seen burning from Murree Hills" (in Pakistan), pointing out that as "Pakistan army obtains large number of recruits from Poonch", situation is "fraught with danger" to "friendly relations" that Pakistan "wishes to retain with Kashmir". Message asks for restoring order and discipline of Maharaja's troops. Mahajan replies on October 15 complaining of "infiltration" from Pakistan and stating that his government is "prepared to have impartial inquiry made into the whole affair" to "remove misunderstandings" and restore cordial relations. Otherwise, he adds, his government will have "no option but to ask for assistance to withstand aggressive actions of what he described as "Pakistani people along our border".
  • October 16: Shaikh Abdullah holds meeting with Maharaja. Mahajan sends his message with telegram to Quaid-e-Azam on October 18 stating that if Pakistan's "extremely unfriendly acts" are not stopped, Maharaja's government "will be justified in asking for friendly assistance". Reply of Foreign Minister of Pakistan categorically denies Maharaja's allegations; pointing out exodus of Muslims" from border areas of the State, and adds "We are astonished to hear your threat to ask for assistance from an outside power" with the object of completing "the process of suppressing the Muslims to enable you to join India as coup d'état against the declared will of 85 per cent of population of your State." Message warns of "gravest consequences" if measures toward that end are not stopped. Finally, message states that Pakistan government appreciates suggestion of an impartial inquiry and asks Maharaja to "immediately to nominate your representative on the Enquiry Committee" whereupon "Pakistan government will nominate its representatives without delay so that the Committee can proceed at once with a thorough inquiry into the whole matter.".
  • A battalion of Patiala State forces - is brought into Kashmir on October 17; it takes up positions guarding Srinagar airfield and reinforces Maharaja's garrison in Jammu
  • October 20: Governor General of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah sends telegram to Maharaja deploring tone and language of Maharaja's telegram which is "almost in the nature of an ultimatum", pointing out that difficulties in supplies "have been felt actually by the Punjab government (in Pakistan) themselves" and refuting Mahajan's "ex-parte" allegations in detail. Message stresses urgent necessity of meeting of representatives of Pakistan and asks Maharaja to help end acrimonious and bitter controversy and smooth out difficulties by sending representative to Karachi and also to cooperate in setting up an Enquiry Committee immediately.
  • October 22: Muslim soldiers of Maharaja's army in Muzaffarabad sector - on the road to Srinagar - rise in mutiny and liquidate their commander and other officers. About 3,000 Pathan tribesmen, volunteers from areas not under Pakistan's regular administration with small arms and driving in civilian lorries, commanded by Khurshid Anwar, enter State on October 22 and overrun whole Muzaffarabad-Uri area. Although lacking armoured transport, they rapidly advance towards Srinagar (October 22-26), overcome resistance by Maharaja's force and, amidst jubilation of people along the way and with help from local civilians in building diversions in place of bridges destroyed by Maharaja's retreating troops, reach Baramulla on October 25. R.L. Batra, Maharaja's Deputy Prime Minister, is sent off to Delhi on October 23 with request for large-scale military assistance but without offer of accession unless insisted on by Indian government.
  • October 24: Establishment of Azad (free) Kashmir government declared with headquarters at Trarkhal inside Kashmir.
  • General Gracey, British acting Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan army, warns Pakistan Government on October 24 of "chaos in Kashmir" and urges that tribal leaders in Kashmir be "told categorically that policy of Pakistan government is strict neutrality". News of planned Indian military operation reaches Pakistan army headquarters on October 26 but information not passed on to Governor General Quaid-e-Azam until evening of October 27. Immediately on receipt of it, Quaid-e-Azam orders Gen Gracey to send regular Pakistan troops to Kashmir to rectify situation. Gracey responds that action requires approval of Field Marshal Auchinleck, Pak-India Joint Supreme Commander. Auchinleck flies next morning to Lahore and represents to Quaid-e-Azam that sending Pakistan army to Kashmir will necessitate withdrawal of all British officers from the army and spell virtually total disorganization. Auchinleck suggests that, instead, Quaid-e-Azam invite Mountbatten and Nehru to Lahore in order to achieve peaceful settlement. Auchinleck's suggestion is backed by Pakistan cabinet which recommends to Quaid-e-Azam to withdraw his order. On return to Delhi, Auchinleck impresses on Mountbatten that Quaid-e-Azam is enraged at what he regards India's "sharp practice" and that Mountbatten and Nehru should meet Quaid-e-Azam in Lahore immediately to come to an agreement. In view of prospect of peaceful adjustment by decision at summit conference, Quaid-e-Azam accepts cabinet's recommendation and withdraws his order for sending troops to Kashmir.
  • October 25: As Azad forces, including Pathan volunteers, advance towards Srinagar, Maharaja flees from his capital. Mahajan and Shaikh Abdullah fly to Delhi and confer separately with Nehru on October 25. Nehru assures Prime Minister Attlee of Britain on October 26 (copy of telegram sent to Pakistan Prime Minister two days later) that "question of aiding Kashmir in this emergency is not designed in any way to influence the State to accede to India" and "question of accession must be decided in accordance with the wishes of the people". Attlee cables next day "begging" Nehru not to let his answer to Maharaja's appeal for aid "take the form of armed intervention" and suggests tripartite meeting of Prime Ministers of India, Pakistan and Maharaja to settle problem.
  • October 26: Indian government decides to rush troops to Kashmir, requiring Maharaja to accede to India and install Shaikh Abdullah as head of administration. Maharaja's letter offering accession, drafted for him by Indian official, V.P. Menon, is preceded by Governor General Mountbatten's letter of acceptance, drafted by same hand; the two letters are given dates of October 26 and 27, respectively. Mountbatten's letter provides that "as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir and her soil cleared of what was called as the "invader", the question of the State's accession should be settled by a reference to the people". .
  • October 27: Indian troops are flown to Srinagar, early morning. First contingent encounters advancing detachment of Azad forces at a place 24 miles from Srinagar and is eliminated. Mountbatten personally supervises planning of Indian military operations.
  • October 28: Nehru invites Pakistan government's "cooperation" in stopping "the raiders" (i.e. Azad forces) and assures Liaquat Ali that "accession is subject to reference to the people of the State and their decision".
  • October 29: Pakistan's reply cites Maharaja's refusal to allow an impartial inquiry, killing of Muslims by his troops and conspiracy to create a situation for military intervention by India. The telegram, addressed both to Nehru and to Attlee, says that developments have revealed "existence of a plan for accession against will of the people possible only by occupation of the country (Jammu Kashmir) by Indian troops". Message concludes that "Pakistan government cannot recognise accession of Kashmir to Indian Union achieved as it has been by fraud and violence." Conflicting views appear at highest level of Indian government about proposed conference with Quaid-e-Azam. Mountbatten agreeable, Nehru most reluctant, Patel (and Menon) vehemently opposed. Conference is postponed until November 01. Nehru pleads illness and is relieved when Mountbatten lets him off. Finally, Mountbatten (accompanied only by Ismay, his personal adviser) flies to Lahore to meet Quaid-e-Azam.
  • October 31: Nehru communicates to Liaquat Ali that Kashmir's accession has been accepted on condition that as soon as law and order have been restored "the people of Kashmir would themselves decide the question of accession". He adds "Our assurance that we shall withdraw our troops from Kashmir as soon as peace and order are restored and leave the decision regarding the future of the State to the people of the State is not merely a pledge to your government but also to the people of Kashmir and to the world".
  • November 2: Nehru repeats the same undertaking in a radio broadcast. "We have declared that the fate of Kashmir is ultimately to be decided by the people. We will not, and cannot back out of it. We are prepared when peace and law and order have been established to have a referendum held under international auspices like the United Nations. We want it to be a fair and just reference to the people, and we shall accept their verdict." .
  • November 6: Horrified & terrorized surviving Muslims of Jammu transported in trucks on the ostensible reason of being taken to Pakistan. They are waylaid during travel and killed with Machine guns fitted atop small Hilllocks.
 
1948
  • January 1: India lodges complaint with UN Security Council alleging that situation, continuance of which is likely to endanger peace and security, has developed between Pakistan and India owing to aid which invaders across Pakistan into the State of Jammu and Kashmir are receiving from Pakistan. India places their number augmented by Pakistan nationals at 19,000. The letter stresses that India is not using the "State's immediate peril for her own political advantage" and repeats that once the State has been "cleared of the invader and normal conditions restored, its people would be free to decide their future by recognised democratic method of a plebiscite or referendum which, in order to ensure complete impartiality, might be held under international auspices". The complaint requests the Security Council to ask Pakistan to desist from the course it has chosen.
  • January 15: Gopalaswamy Ayyangar , India's representative, presenting his government's case to the Council, states "The question ... whether she (Kashmir) should withdraw from her accession to India, and either accede to Pakistan or remain independent with a right to claim admission as a Member of the United Nations - all this we have recognised to be a matter for unfettered decision by the people of Kashmir." Following President's consensus statement, Council members work on draft resolution contemplating simultaneous withdrawals of tribesmen and Indian troops, setting up a neutral administration and holding plebiscite under United Nations control.
  • Gandhi is killed by a fanatic Hindu. His death is celeberated in Jammu by distribution of sweets in plates (Thals) supplied from Maharaja’s Palace.
  • February: In early February, at crucial stage of Security Council's consideration of the dispute, India asks for suspension of proceedings expressing dissatisfaction with trend in the Council. Council members, notably Phillip Noel-Baker of Britain (later a Nobel Peace laureate) and Warren Austin of the United States protest. It seems, Austin says on February 10 that "what he (Indian representative) desired ... was that the Council should take up a position which would amount to that of an ally in a war ... and allow India to finish the job by force against the tribesmen. That is the very last position which the Council ought to take." Mountbatten helps India bring pressure on Britain to help modify proposals under Council's consideration.
  • April 21: Council adopts comprehensive resolution instructing UN Commission (membership raised to five) "to proceed at once" to subcontinent with mandate to bring about cessation of fighting and "necessary measures" for holding plebiscite. Resolution recommends demilitarisation of the State (except minimum forces required for law and order) "equitable" share of major political groups in government, establishment of Plebiscite Administrator headed by a nominee of Secretary General and return of all displaced persons.
  • April 30: Pakistan states that measures envisaged in Council's resolution "are not adequate to ensure an impartial plebiscite". On May 7, India voices objections to Council's recommendations. Both parties, however, agree to confer with UN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP). With end of winter and roads no longer snow-bound, India poised on large-scale military offensive to capture Muzaffarabad. Gen Gracey, commander-in-chief of Pakistan Army, makes urgent request to his government to permit Pakistan's regular forces, in limited strength, to enter Kashmir to prevent "an easy victory of the Indian army". To forestall grave danger to Pakistan, Gen Gracey states, India cannot be "allowed to sit on the doorsteps of Pakistan" and "to advance beyond the general line of Uri-Poonch-Naushehra". Pakistan moves in three army brigades with strict instructions to take defensive positions behind Azad forces and not to take part in battle unless Indian troops break through. No air cover is provided to Pakistan forces, lest fighting escalate to Pak-India war.
  • May 18: Indian army launches offensive on Uri front, advancing half-way to Chakothi. "Our advance petered out on the Uri-Domel road," says a senior Indian commander (Kaul). The halt on May 21 seems to be caused by strategic points being tightly held by Azad forces in the wooded, mountainous area and the risk of scattering Indian strength in assaulting different positions. Fighting, however, continues sporadically on this front (of principal political importance) but steadily elsewhere.
  • July 7: UNCIP arrives in subcontinent on July 7 after delay (never explained) of 76 days since passage of Security Council resolution instructing it "to proceed at once". Enters into intensive negotiations with both governments at highest level towards formulating an agreement to a ceasefire and synchronises withdrawal of all regular Pakistani forces and bulk of Indian forces (constituting a truce between the two sides) and reaffirmation of their common wish that "future status of the State shall be determined in accordance with the will of the people".
  • August 13: UNCIP adopts resolution, which is a draft agreement between Pakistan and India and submits it to both governments. It says, future status of the State of Jammu and Kashmir shall be determined in accordance with the will of the people.
  • August 20: Nehru addresses letter to UNCIP Chairman saying that his government "have decided to accept the resolution". Acceptance is based on India's understanding (stated in letter) of several key terms of resolution. Foreign Minister Zafrullah Khan of Pakistan seeks "elucidations" from UNCIP of its proposals and of explanations it has supplied to India and expresses reservations about ambiguity concerning specific nature of conducting plebiscite. UNCIP decides to return to Geneva to prepare interim report to Security Council.
  • December 11: UNCIP supplements its resolution with provisions regarding conduct and conditions of contemplated plebiscite. Both Pakistan and India accept the UNCIP proposals along with resolution of August 13. Acceptance is conveyed in communications dated December 23 (from India) and December 25 (from Pakistan). These proposals as agreed to by both governments are embodied later in UNCIP resolution of January 5, 1949. The peace plan contemplates three stages of settlement, first, ceasefire, second, truce (synchronised withdrawals of forces on the two sides), third, plebiscite. Joint acceptance of peace plan comes at time when after reverses suffered by Azad forces, Pakistan army has launched an operation at a vital point (Beri Pattan bridge) to sever India's line of communications. Operation is halted on Gen. Glancey's orders.
 
1949
  • January 1: Ceasefire takes effect on all fronts "pursuant to the agreement arrived at as provided for in UNCIP resolution of August 13, 1948". Relief and joyful expectancy at popular level (especially in Kashmir) is dampened by skepticism in knowledgeable circles about prospect of implementation of peace plan.
  • January 5: UN Commission for India and Pakistan adopts resolution saying, the question of the accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan will be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite.
  • February 4-March 22: UNCIP returns to subcontinent to draw up truce agreement between Pakistan and India. In advance of agreement, Pakistan appeals to all tribesmen and Pakistan nationals to withdraw from Kashmir. Some thinning of forces takes place on both sides. Final exchange of Prisoners of War (along with a dozen prominent political prisoners in Indian-held Kashmir is arranged through International Red Cross between January 10-13. Truce Committee of UNCIP obtains agreement on cease-fire line. Admiral Chester Nimitz (a US war hero) is nominated as Plebiscite Administrator by UN Secretary General. His formal induction into office was to take place on completion of withdrawal of forces according to jointly agreed schedule. These auguries of progress towards settlement begin to fade in atmosphere thickened with controversy. Divergent interpretations of the international agreement (embodied in UNCIP resolutions) put forth as "elucidations" of the agreement provided by UNCIP to the two sides are published. UNCIP convenes meeting in March of representatives of the two parties at which they are invited to present for discussion their proposals for truce. Pakistan presents paper suggesting framework within which, subject to agreement, high commands of the two armies can work out together a detailed and synchronised withdrawal programme and Pakistan forces would be withdrawn within three months. India does not submit any plan to joint discussion and agreement.
  • April 28: UNCIP formulates "truce terms" - i.e. programme of demilitarisation - and communicates them to the two governments. India demands (a) disbanding and disarming of Azad Kashmir forces as condition for phasing withdrawal of bulk of Indian troops and (b) acceptance of principle that Indian troops garrison important strategic points in the northern areas. India further requires that programme of withdrawal of Indian forces agreed upon with UNCIP should not be communicated to Pakistan until Truce Agreement has been arrived at. Pakistan declares its readiness to withdraw all Pakistani troops from Kashmir as soon as schedule of withdrawal of "bulk" of Indian forces is known "on the basis of which a synchronised withdrawal of the two armies could be arranged". Regarding disposition of Azad Kashmir forces, Pakistan suggests that as the issue corresponds to disposition of Kashmir State forces on the other side, Plebiscite Administrator (whose mandate under jointly-accepted resolution of January 5, 1949 includes disposal of all forces in Kashmir) be associated with discussion to evolve an agreement even before his formal induction into office.
  • June 9: Under auspices of UNCIP and on its initiative, Ceasefire Line Agreement is signed in Karachi by military representatives of Pakistan and India along with representatives of UNCIP. Karachi Agreement demarcates ceasefire line and provides (in accordance with resolution of August 13, 1948) that "UNCIP will station observers where it deems necessary". Agreement is promptly ratified by both governments, UN Military Observers' Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) present, since ceasefire, is now provided strengthened legal foundation.
  • August: As logical sequel to Karachi Agreement, UNCIP proposes tripartite meeting at political level on August 17 to conclude Truce Agreement stipulating programme of withdrawal of forces. Meeting is cancelled in view of persisting differences between the two sides.
  • August 26: In effort to end stalemate, UNCIP makes formal proposal that the two governments agree to submit to arbitration by Admiral Nimitz, Plebiscite Administrator-designate, all questions at issue between them regarding implementation of Part-II of UNCIP resolution of August 13, 1948 (listing truce terms), the arbitrator "to decide these questions according to equity". UNCIP makes clear that arbitration will not affect objective of demilitarization and free plebiscite and that it will terminate "once the truce terms are agreed upon". On August 20, US President Truman and British Prime Minister Attlee issue joint appeal to Pakistan and India to accept UNCIP proposal for arbitration.
  • September-October: As demonstrative of world leadership interest in peaceful settlement of Kashmir dispute, Truman-Attlee appeal generate hope in Kashmir about earlier ceasefire but dashed by tortuous course of later negotiations. Pakistan responds to UNCIP proposal with a one-sentence letter of acceptance. India rejects proposal mainly on ground that question of Azad Kashmir forces "cannot be left to the decision of an arbitrator". UNCIP replies to this contention on September 10 as "both governments have agreed to large-scale disbanding and disarming of their forces" and "the difference that has arisen on this matter has not been one of substance but of scope, method and timing" and that "arbitration would apply to this aspect only". Unconvinced, India expresses surprise and disappointment at UNCIP suggesting a procedure India calls "novel and without precedent". This spells end of UNCIP's labours. In its final report (submitted some weeks later), it recommends Security Council to appoint a representative, rather than a commission, to help resolve contentious issues between the two governments. Kashmir dispute runs along a two-track course. At formal diplomatic level, negotiations via United Nations continue with focus on establishing conditions for a fair plebiscite. At domestic level, India pursues systematic policy of integrating Indian-held Kashmir with India and thus seal Maharaja's accession.
  • October 17: Article-370 is inserted in Indian Constitution giving Kashmir certain special rights not available to other states of India.
  • December: Following UNCIP's final report, Security Council on December 17 requests its President, Gen A.G.L. McNaughton (Canada) to mediate between the parties and find a "mutually satisfactory basis for dealing with the Kashmir problem". Gen McNaughton formulates his proposals on December 22. Comprehensive in scope, they seek "to preserve the substantial measure agreement on fundamental principles already reached" between the parties "under the auspices of the United Nations". They affirm the objective of determining "the future of Jammu and Kashmir by the democratic method of free and impartial plebiscite to take place as early as possible". In an effort to cut through the tangle of controversies about implementation of UNCIP plan, McNaughton's proposals contemplate "an agreed programme of progressive demilitarisation ... on either side of the cease-fire line to withdrawal, disbandment and disarmament in such stages as not to cause fear at any point on both governments to reach agreement by January 31, 1950 on progressive steps to be taken in reducing and redistributing the forces to the minimum level "complete with the maintenance of security and of local law and order". The Plan envisages the appointment of a United Nations Representative authorised to supervise demilitarisation and "to make any suggestions" to the two governments "likely to contribute to the expeditious and enduring solution of the Kashmir question." This broadens scope of United Nations mediation. Pakistan accepts MaCnaughton proposals while suggesting minor alternation in wording to make paragraph conform to terms of UNCIP resolutions. India formulates its objections to them in the form of "amendments" which would radically change their scheme.
  • It does not countenance what it regards as equality of states between Indian-sponsored government and Azad Kashmir regime which is implied in execution of a balanced or symmetrical demilitarisation plan. It also insists on retaining Kashmir state forces after demilitarisation.
 
1950
  • March 14: Security Council adopts resolution of reflecting intention of MaCnaughton proposals. It appoints a UN Representative to replace UNCIP and calls upon Pakistan and India to prepare and execute within five months "a programme of demilitarisation" on basis of MaCnaughton proposals or on "mutually agreed modifications thereof".
  • April 12: Security Council appoints Sir Own Dixon, eminent jurist from Australia, as UN Representative. Appointment is accepted by both parties.
  • June-July: Owen Dixon conducts intensive negotiations with governments of Pakistan and India and also meets Shaikh Abdullah in Srinagar and Ghulam Abbas in Muzaffarabad. He is struck by peculiar nature of situation.
  • The two governments acknowledge objective of plebiscite but disagree on measures necessary for it. India takes stand that Pakistan is an "aggressor" and should be so declared, that there must be "no impairment of, or prejudice to, the recognition of the sovereignty of the State of Jammu and Kashmir" (meaning the Indian-sponsored regime) and that its authority should be recognised on both sides of the ceasefire line. In a concession to India in view of its rejection of the UNCIP truce plan, Dixon puts forward a plan whereby "the first step in demilitarization should consist in withdrawal of Pakistan regular forces commencing on a named day" and "after a significant number of days from the named date, other operations on each side of ceasefire line should take place and as far as practicable, concurrently". Prime Minister Liaquat Ali of Pakistan questions reasoning behind the proposition but "expresses his readiness to accept" it "in compliance with" Dixon's "request". India, however, raises a number of objections to the rest of Dixon's proposals; these persist even after Dixon provides certain satisfactions to India with regard to her arguments over status of Azad Kashmir. Dixon notes that India does not "put forward any suggestion for amendment" of his plan "or offer any alternative solution".
  • July 20-24: After shuttling between the two capitals, Dixon convenes summit meeting of the two Prime Ministers in his presence in Delhi from July 20-24. This is the highest point of face-to-face negotiations under UN auspices over Kashmir. At the conference, Dixon formulates three plans for placing entire State under one administration which would be collectively impartial and thus for removing all difficulties arising from "division of the State by the ceasefire line as a political boundary during period of the plebiscite". The single administration would alternatively be composed of coalition of Indian-sponsored regime and Azad Kashmir Movement, of "trusted persons outside politics" or of UN representatives. "None of the suggestions," he says "commended themselves to Prime Minister of India." In the end, says Dixon, "I became convinced that India's agreement would never be obtained to demilitarisation in any such form or to provisions governing the period of the plebiscite of any such charter as would ... (guard) against intimidation and other forms of influence and abuse ..." With this line of negotiation blocked, Dixon tries an imaginative approach. He suggests "holding a partial plebiscite including or consisting of the valley of Kashmir and partitioning the remainder of the State" between Pakistan and India according to already known wishes of different zones of the State. Pakistan expresses fear that attending a conference to consider this plan may mean abandoning demand for overall plebiscite in advance of agreement on an alternative plan. India agrees to attend such a conference. However, while Dixon is trying to assure Pakistan that its claim will remain unaffected as long as an alternative agreement does not emerge, India raises objections to his plan. "I came to the conclusion," says Dixon "that it would be impossible to give effect to doctrines formulated by India in objection to any plan for partition and a limited plebiscite which I could ask Pakistan to accept." These doctrines stem partly from India's contention that Pakistan's position is that of an aggressor in Kashmir. As a jurist, Dixon deals deftly with this contention. In the first place, he says in effect, he is not mandated to adjudicate the claim. Secondly, even if he assumes that Pakistan has acted in breach of international law, how can that detract from recognition of Pakistan's interest in Kashmir which is implied in agreement to the principle of plebiscite? The claim, whether factual or otherwise, is wholly devoid of relevance to Kashmir problem's settlement. In his report to Security Council, Dixon states, "If there is any chance of settling the dispute over Kashmir by agreement between Pakistan and India, it now lies in partition and is some means of allocating the occupied valley rather than overall plebiscite."
 
1951
  • January 15: Pakistan in its reply refutes Indian charges but concedes that some "independent tribesmen and persons from Pakistan are helping the Azad Kashmir government in their struggle". It files 10 counter-charges against India accusing it of having "obtained the accession of Kashmir through fraud and violence and large-scale massacre of Muslims". Pakistan requests Security Council to appoint a commission to "arrange for the cessation of fighting in Jammu and Kashmir and the withdrawal of all outsiders, whether belonging to Pakistan or the Indian Union". It also calls for a plebiscite when these steps have been taken "to determine whether the State should accede to India or Pakistan".
  • January 17: Security Council in preliminary move asks both governments to recognise urgency of situation, take measures to improve it and report progress. On January 20, Security Council sets up three-member commission to investigate the two complaints.
  • January 28: President of Council states that "the three ideas", (a) question of accession to be decided by plebiscite, (b) the plebiscite to be conducted under conditions ensuring complete impartiality and (c) hence to be held under the aegis of United Nations "are not disputed between the parties".
  • August 10: White Paper issued by Government of India states "The Government of India are firmly of the view that whatever sovereign rights reverted to these (princely) States on the lapse of paramountcy, that is to say when the British sovereignty ceased to operate, they vest in the people and conditions must be created in every State for a free and unfettered exercise of these rights."
  • August 13: Security Council passes resolution calling for ceasefire, truce and plebiscite and acceptance of certain principles. Pakistan agrees to withdraw troops and use its best endeavours to secure withdrawal of tribesmen and Pakistani nationals. Resolution says pending final solution, territory evacuated by these troops will be administered by local authorities under close Commission supervision. This is ipso facto recognition of Azad Kashmir government as "local authority". Once Pakistani troops and national are gone, India to begin to withdraw "bulk of its forces" in stages. Pending final settlement, India to maintain remaining forces for law and order. Pakistan and India asked to reaffirm commitment to plebiscite and to enter into consultations with Commission to determine fair and equitable conditions for free expression of people's will. India accepts while Pakistan expresses reservations regarding specific nature of carrying out of plebiscite.
  • December 11: After extensive negotiations, both governments accept resolution which calls for free and impartial plebiscite in State, appointment of a Plebiscite Administrator, re-establishment of political and human rights and return of refugees. Question of final disposal of armed forces in State to be solved by Plebiscite Administrator in consultation with the two governments. Both governments agree to ceasefire in State from January 1, 1949 and appointment of 36 UN observers.
 
1952
  • July 16: In his revised proposals, Graham tries to narrow down differences on size and disposition of troops but does not succeed. Negotiations continue and agreement is reached on all points except size of Azad Kashmir and Indian and Kashmir State forces to be retained on eve of plebiscite and timing of Plebiscite Administrator's appointment. Negotiations continue at UN and Geneva but do not reduce differences on these two points. Finally, Graham reports failure of his mission to Security Council on March 27, 1953 and appeals to Indian and Pakistani governments to "join in negotiating an agreement on Kashmir and thereby light a torch along the difficult path of the people's pilgrimage toward peace".
  • One of the debates on Graham's mission is marked by Soviet delegate Jacob Malik attacking UK and US on January 17, 1952 for interference in "internal affairs of Kashmir" and attempts to turn it into a military base against Soviet Union. He also criticizes Security Council resolution of March 30, 1951 as restricting Kashmir's right of free expression through a "democratically elected Constituent Assembly".
  • July 24: India signs agreement with Shaikh Abdullah granting a certain measure of autonomy to State not available to other states of Union. It also provides for abolition of dynastic monarchy. It is decided that the Indian "Union flag will occupy the supremely distinctive place in the State", fundamental rights guaranteed under Indian Constitution as well as jurisdiction of Indian Supreme Court will apply to Kashmir, not only in regard to fundamental rights but in respect of disputes between states and between State and Centre.
  • August 21: Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly passes resolution providing for abolition of Dogra dynasty and its replacement by a constitutional head for five-year term. Karan Singh, son of former Maharaja, appointed head of State or Sadar-i-Ryasat by Constituent Assembly.
 
1953
  • March 27: Graham informs Security Council that efforts to break impasse between Pakistan and India on Kashmir have failed. This marks the end of his mission.
  • July 25-27: Pakistani and Indian Prime Ministers meet in Karachi and agree that a resolution of their disputes is "essential to progress in both countries".
  • August 9: Shaikh Abdullah is dismissed from his post by the Sadar-i-Ryasat at the direct instance of New Delhi which has been finding his repeated demand for the promised autonomy irksome and, finally, intolerable. Abdullah's successor Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad accuses him of conspiring with foreign powers to establish independent Kashmir. Abdullah is arrested by the Bakhshi administration subsequently.
  • August 17-20: Talks continue as Pakistan Prime Minister Mohammed Ali goes to New Delhi. Communiqué issued at end of meeting says issue of Kashmir "should be settled in accordance with the wishes of the people of that State with a view to promoting their well-being and causing the least disturbance to the life of the people of the State". They also agree on appointment of Plebiscite Administrator by the end of April 1954.
  • US Admiral Chester Nimitz is proposed for the post but Nehru demands that Administrator should come from one of the smaller nations. Pakistan maintains it has full confidence in "the integrity and impartiality of Nimitz".
  • Direct negotiations between Pakistan and India continue until September 21, 1954 when Pakistani Prime Minister tells Nehru his attitude leaves no chance for a settlement and the matter "must revert to the Security Council"
  • December 10: Jawaharlal Nehru writes to Prime Minister of Pakistan that because of the growing military alliance between the United States and Pakistan, situation in Kashmir is directly affected. He writes, "... it becomes rather absurd to talk of demilitarization (of Kashmir), if Pakistan proceeds in the reverse direction with the help of the United States."
 
1954
  • February 3: Despite Pakistan's protests, the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly (in occupied Kashmir) ratifies State's accession to India, describing it as "irrevocable". Pakistan urges Nehru to repudiate the move, but he while reiterating India's continuing commitment to plebiscite, declines to take action.
  • October 1: Pakistan and India issue White Paper on Kashmir containing correspondence between both governments. Nehru's view that US military aid to Pakistan has "changed the entire context of the problem" and the problem now was not one of "demilitarization but militarization" now increasingly begins to color India's attitude towards Kashmir and Pakistan. India also feels that it is now obliged to keep a much larger force in Kashmir, disregarding Pakistan's assurances that US military aid has no bearing on Kashmir dispute. President Eisenhower's reassuring letter to Nehru on military aid to Pakistan fails to placate Indian leader. Nehru proposes No-War Declaration to Pakistan to which Pakistan says it should contain guarantee for the two parties to abide by arbitration, should negotiations and mediation fail. This is rejected by Nehru.
 
1955
  • March 29: Nehru declares in Parliament in New Delhi that "Pakistan is out of court" since it has failed to honor obligation under UNCIP resolution of August 13, 1948 of withdrawing its forces from Kashmir. He also hints at his opposition to plebiscite.
  • April 2: Nehru repeats March 29th stand in more open terms at Press conference in Indian capital. This is followed by Indian Home Minister declaring Jammu and Kashmir to be integral part of India
  • December 10: Soviet leaders Nikita Khruschev and Bulganin declare in Srinagar that Jammu nd Kashmir is part of India. Khruschev says, "the question of Kashmir as one of the States of the Republic of India has already been decided by the people of Kashmir". He sharply attacks Pakistan and charges that its policy is "not based on the real interests of the people and of the State, but is dictated by the monopolistic circles of other countries."He also denounces partition of India on a religious basis. Pakistan reacts sharply and there is also some criticism in Indian Parliament.
 
1956
  • November 17: Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly adopts constitution which includesun-amendable provision about State being an integral part - atoot ang - of India. Newconstitution due to come in force on January 26, 1957. It declares, "the State of Jammu andKashmir is and shall be an integral part of the Union of India."
 
1957
  • January 16: Five years after its last meeting and nearly 30 months of direct though fruitless Pak-India negotiations, Security Council meets to continue consideration of Kashmir issue at Pakistan's request.
  • January 24: Through a resolution Security Council reaffirms determination of Kashmir's future by plebiscite and declares that any action by Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly and its support by parties would not constitute a disposition of the State in keeping with that principle.
  • February 21: Security Council asks its President, Gunnar Jarring of Sweden to examine with the two governments any proposals likely to promote a settlement having regard to earlier UNCIP resolutions. During debate USSR denounces what it calls "imperialist interference" in Kashmir and supports India and its stand. Also vetoes on February 20th resolution which includes provision for "a temporary UN force for Kashmir". Pakistan charges India with going back on solemn international commitments and brutal repression in Kashmir of popular upsurge in favor of plebiscite. India calls Pakistan "aggressor" and maintains it has no obligation to discharge until vacation of aggression (more or less the same stand as it has taken 38 years later in 1995). Also declares that its voluntary effort to consult people of State has already implemented through elections to Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. Adds that UNCIP and other resolutions have become outdated.
  • March 14-April 11: Security Council President Jarring visits Pakistan and India.
  • April 29: Jarring submits his report to the Security Council which makes no specific proposals as such but affirms that "the parties were still desirous of finding a solution". Reports that on being told by India that Pakistan has not implemented Part-I of UNCIP resolution of August 13, 1948, in particular provisions relating to agreement to "refrain from taking any measures that might augment military potential of the forces under their control in the State" and creation and maintenance of atmosphere favorable to promotion of further negotiations, he suggested arbitration. Jarring's proposal that arbitration should be limited to determining which state has failed to implement provisions and to indicate to parties concerned which measures they should take to arrive at full implementation is accepted by Pakistan but rejected by India. Jarring hopes that India and Pakistan agree to hold high-level conference "without prejudice to their respective positions on the Kashmir question". He proposes that the agenda "might include the basic differences which the parties find to stand in the way of a settlement and such other matters as the parties might find would contribute toward the implementation of the resolutions of the UN Commission on India and Pakistan on August 13, 1948 and January 5, 1949 and toward a peaceful settlement".
 
1958
1959
  • April 1: Permit system for entry to State from India is abolished.
  • September 15: Pakistan President Ayub Khan holds meeting with Jawaharlal Nehru at Delhi airport in bid to persuade India to settle Kashmir.
  • October 1: Constitution is amended to extend jurisdiction of Union Election Commission to Jammu and Kashmir and State high court is brought at par with high courts in rest of India.
 
1960
  • May: President Ayub and Nehru meet in London at Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference and discuss Kashmir but without making progress towards settlement.
  • September: Nehru visits Karachi and Rawalpindi and Kashmir forms one of main topics of discussion between Ayub and him but once again, this meeting too fails to produce results.
 
1961
1962
  • February 1: After an interval of four years, Kashmir returns to Security Council at Pakistan's request, which India opposes but at Pakistan's insistence, meeting is convened. Pakistan's delegate Zafrullah Khan draws Council's attention to recent Indian statements, which he sees as posing threat to the security of Pakistan and Kashmir. Reference is made to call by Indian National Congress President Sanjiva Reddy in Patna on 4 January 1962 "for liberation of areas under Pakistan's occupation in Kashmir". Also brought to Council's notice is Indian Defence Minister Krishna Menon's statement threat that India will "take steps to end Chinese and Pakistani aggression in India".
  • India seeks adjournment of meeting owing to national elections, while Soviet delegate says the meeting is "unnecessary and uncalled for". Adjournment until March 1 is announced. However, next meeting takes place on April 27 and is followed by 10 more.
  • June 22: An Irish resolution urging resumption of direct negotiations is once again vetoed by Soviet Union. While Zafarullah Khan stresses India's commitment to UNCIP resolutions, Indian delegate V.K. Krishna Menon states that "accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India was complete and final" and there is no provision in Indian constitution for provisional or conditional accession. He calls Pakistan an "aggressor" which does not stand on the same footing with India. He claims that "people of Kashmir have expressed their will and solidarity for India through three general elections". He argues that Indian acceptance of UNCIP resolutions is not a commitment but an engagement, which can only come into effect when Pakistan has withdrawn its forces from Kashmir. Pakistan, he asserts, had no locus standi in Kashmir and urges Council members to persuade Pakistan to "vacate her aggression". Also holds it responsible for non-implementation of UNCIP resolutions. He further states that India cannot submit to mediation or arbitration and "No power except a secession act by Indian parliament could cut Kashmir asunder from India."
  • India is supported by USSR and Romania, its Warsaw Pact ally, with the Soviet delegate saying, "It was unrealistic to demand plebiscite and the UNCIP resolutions were not capable of mediation." He states that Security Council "must respect the wishes of the people of Kashmir which has irrevocably decided to link its fate with India."
  • Zafarullah, speaking for Pakistan, says no unilateral obligation is enjoined on his country to withdraw its troop from Kashmir. India, on the other hand, is required under UNCIP resolution of August 13, 1948 to withdraw "the bulk of her troops". He points out that these principles have been accepted by both countries but no Truce Agreement has so far been concluded because of Indian intransigence. He offers Pakistan's readiness to "refer the question to any body of international standing if the responsibility to withdraw troops begins before the drawing up of the Truce Agreement and act accordingly". Zafarullah draws Council's attention to "the universally accepted principle of international law" that a nation cannot invoke its constitution and laws to obstruct implementation of international agreements and treaties as India is doing. Elections to Kashmir Constituent Assembly, he points out, are no substitute for plebiscite, stressing that in its resolution of May 30, 1951, Security Council has specifically stated that any action by said Assembly cannot mean determination of State's future in keeping with principles embodied in various resolutions on the subject including those of UNCIP. Pakistan envoy also points out that Kashmir Constituent Assembly represents, at best, part of the State, and it is universally accepted in law that a part cannot decide for the whole.
  • June 22: All Council members favour another resolution calling for resolution of Kashmir dispute through direct negotiations but USSR threatens veto, which it duly applies on June 22, its 100th in Security Council. Heated exchanges take place, with Zafrullah stating, "If India wants to be released from its obligations, it should propose as much to the Security Council and seek the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on all these matters. The validity of accession, question of sovereignty and other questions in dispute and issues not yet determined.
  • Six months after this inconclusive debate, India-China border conflict breaks out with Indian army suffering major reverses and complete loss of face at Chinese hands. US and UK rush arms to "neutral, non-aligned" India and decide that to eliminate possibility of Pakistan taking military advantage of India's situation to clinch solution of Kashmir, talks between Pakistan and India should take place. Averall Harriman of US and Duncan Sandys of UK rush to subcontinent and persuade Nehru to have direct talks with Pakistan on Kashmir.
  • November 29: Joint communiqué is issued in New Delhi but everything threatens to get unraveled when next day Nehru says status quo in Kashmir cannot be affected by forthcoming talks. Sandys who is on his way to London via Karachi flies back to New Delhi and makes Nehru retract statement.
  • December 26: Six rounds of talks start between Pakistan Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Indian External Affairs Minister Sardar Swarn Singh. First round at Rawalpindi - December 26-29, 1962 - is confined to preliminaries, historical aspects and respective stands.
 
1963
  • Second round of Pak-India talks at Delhi - January 16-20 - and third at Karachi - April 21-25 - see Pakistan calling for plebiscite and India opposing it, at fourth round at Calcutta - March 12-14 - India suggests readjustment of ceasefire line to settle dispute which Pakistan rejects, while fifth round at Karachi - April 21-25 - is taken up with Indian protest at recently signed Pak-China boundary agreement under which some area of former State is ceded to China. At sixth and final round at Delhi - May 14-16 - Pakistan proposes plebiscite confined to Valley which it further suggests should be placed under international control for 12 to 15 months prior to holding of vote. If plebiscite not acceptable, then people's wishes should be ascertained in some other form and dispute settled. India rejects both proposals.
  • December 27: Much political upheaval in Kashmir with installation of openly integrationist government in State, climaxed with mysterious disappearance of Holy Prophet of Islam Hazrat Mohammad (SAW)'s hair - a much-revered relic - from Hazratbal shrine near Srinagar. Mass protests all over State with hundreds of thousands out in streets, wailing and denouncing India and its puppet regime in State.
 
1964
  • January 4: Holy relic of Hazrat Mohammad (Peace be upon him) just as mysteriously reappears. Awami Action Committee formed to recover relic demands, release of Shaikh Abdullah, withdrawal of cases against him and holding of plebiscite.
  • February 3: Security Council meets and holds a series of seven meetings.
  • April 8: Abdullah released
  • May 18: Last meeting of Security Council ends with summation by President of Council. Bhutto informs members that Kashmir is in revolt against India and refers to anti-Muslim riots in India. Indian representative M.C. Chagla counters by restating that Jammu and Kashmir is India's integral part and UNCIP resolutions have become obsolete and, further, that constitutional changes to bring about Kashmir's integration with India are internal Indian affair and Pakistan has no right to interfere or complain. Bhutto replies that UNCIP resolutions can only be abrogated by agreement of Pakistan and India, UN and the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Points out that if UNCIP resolutions are obsolete, so is the ceasefire which they produced. Members suggest indefinite adjournment to enable new trends emerging to take over, especially in view of Abdullah's release.
  • May 24: Nehru invites Abdullah to Delhi and the two make up. Abdullah travels to Pakistan and also goes to Azad Kashmir where he confers with its President K.H. Khurshid. Nehru is said to have had a change of heart on Kashmir, though others deny it - to this day. Ayub later records that Abdullah proposed confederation like arrangements between Pakistan, India and Kashmir, which he rejected. Mirza Afzal Beg, who accompanies Abdullah to Pakistan later tells Indian author P.L. Lakhanpal, "various solutions of the dispute were talked about in general terms but no preferences for any particular solutions were indicated.
  • May 27: Nehru's sudden death in New Delhi aborts Abdullah's mission without any understanding on any point. Abdullah returns to India.
  • September: Elder Indian statesman Jayaprakash Narayan visits Pakistan and feels there is a chance of settling Kashmir dispute.
  • October 12: President Ayub Khan and Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri meet in Karachi but no dramatic announcements are made nor is there any expression of mutual goodwill. However, it is agreed that next contact will be at ministerial level.
  • December 21: Article-356 and 357 of the Indian constitution providing for extension of Presidential or federal rule in Jammu and Kashmir by India evoke strong protests in Valley and is taken exception to by Pakistan through various communications to Security Council.
 
1965
  • March: Indian government permits Abdullah and Afzal Beg to make the pilgrimage to Makkah. From there they decide to travel to Algiers via London to attend Afro-Asian Conference - which never takes place because of coup d'etat against regime. In London, they learn about arrest in Srinagar of 165 leaders and supporters of Plebiscite Front. Abdullah travels to Algiers where he meets Chinese Prime Minister Zhou En-lai, which causes widespread official and public anger in India. Abdullah's passport is cancelled and he is ordered to return.
  • May 8: Abdullah turns down offer of Pakistani passport and arrives in New Delhi with Beg and is arrested and detained in Ootacumand, thousands of miles from Kashmir. Widespread protests in Valley and a near civil disobedience movement. After military clashes in Rann of Kutch, separating Pakistan's Sindh province from India's marshy Kutch region, Pakistan seems to get better of Indian troops. British mediation produces ceasefire.
  • May 19: Major clash occurs on ceasefire line in Kashmir and 40 Pakistani troops are reported killed. June 30: Status quo ante agreement is signed between Pakistan and India and arbitration accepted in case the two sides fail to settle differences (dispute is finally settled in July 1969). More changes are introduced on April 10, State to integrate it further with Indian Union. Nomenclatures are changed to bring them in line with those prevailing elsewhere in India, with the Prime Minister now called Chief Minister and Sadar-i-Ryasat. Earlier in January, Indian National Congress, ruling party in Delhi, has established branch in Kashmir and Prime Minister G.M. Sadiq announced dissolution of National Conference and absorption of its membership in Indian National Congress.
  • June-July: Incidents continue. There are increasing reports of infiltration from Azad Kashmir into Indian Kashmir. By first week of August, as part of 'Operation Gibraltar', an estimated 1,000 to 3,000 fighters (infiltrators to India;) have crossed over. A clandestine radio station calling itself Sada-i-Kashmir (The voice of Kashmir) starts broadcasting calling for uprising against Indian occupation..
  • August 14-15: Indians attack Pakistani positions in Kargil in north Kashmir.
  • August 16: 100,000 people march on Indian Parliament and demand action against so-called Pakistani "aggressors". Indian army captures important positions in Azad Kashmir's Titwal region and Uri-Poonch salient.
  • September 1: Pakistani and Azad Kashmiri troops supported by armor cross the Pakistan-Jammu border near Chhamb and capture sizeable territory.
  • September 6: India attacks Pakistan on two fronts near Lahore and Sialkot. Full-scale war breaks out though there is no formal declaration.
  • September 9: UN Secretary General U.Thant travels to the subcontinent.
  • September 17: USSR steps in to fill void and promote its international peace-making stature. Aleksei Kosygin writes to Ayub and Shastri proposing that they meet in Tashkent.
  • September 23: After 14 days of intense fighting in which there is much loss of life on both sides, ceasefire is declared after Security Council demands one. In Security Council, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Z.A. Bhutto demands discussion of Kashmir question in near future or he will withdraw his delegation.
  • October: In Srinagar demonstrations take place with student participation demanding plebiscite to decide future of State.
  • October 10: Many leaders including Mirwaiz Mohammed Farooq are arrested and many others by October 21.
 
1966
  • January 3: Ayub and Shastri meet in Tashkent and reach agreement with Soviet Union playing honest broker.
  • January 10: The Tashkent Declaration does not deal with Kashmir dispute but notes its existence. Some see it as having relegated issue to cold storage while concentrating general improvement of relations.
  • January 11: Shastri dies of heart attack.
  • February: Withdrawal of armies behind established international borders and cease-fire line, as laid down in Tashkent agreement, is implemented.
  • June: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto exhibiting open disenchantment with Tashkent begins to distance himself from what he later denounces as a sellout of Kashmir and is finally forced to resign on grounds of "ill health".
 
1967
  • January-June: Indian People's Representation Act is made applicable to occupied Kashmir as part of continuing efforts to integrate State with Indian Union and further erode Article-370 and what autonomy it conferred on Kashmiris.
  • Elections held in occupied Kashmir are almost massively rigged by G.M. Sadiq government which has become almost totally subservient to New Delhi. Sadiq's party, the old National Conference, now renamed is an extension of Indira Gandhi's Congress. Plebiscite Front which is believed to represent Abdullah's views boycotts elections.
  • July: Mirza Afzal Beg is permitted to return to his native Islamabad in the Valley as is Sheikh Abdullah's wife Akbar Jahan.
  • December: Maulana Sayeed Masoodi, another detained leader, is released.
 
1968
  • Pakistan continues to press for further negotiations as sequel to Tashkent through the United Nations or direct talks. Possibility of no-war pact is again explored but Indian attitude remains "non-committal and evasive", to quote Alistair Lamb.
  • Jammu and Kashmir People's Convention holds session in Srinagar under Sheikh Abdullah's leadership and looks at various options to solve Kashmir problem.
 
1969
  • May: Shaikh Abdullah announces entry of Jammu and Kashmir Plebiscite Front in electoral politics. Front fares well in local elections and is set to take part in State elections.
 
1970
  • June: Another session of Jammu and Kashmir State People's Convention is convened by Sheikh Abdullah in Srinagar and Front's policies more clearly enunciated. A supreme government for entire State including Azad Kashmir, is visualized with regional authorities responsible for Valley, Jammu, Ladakh, Northern Areas including Gilgit and Azad Kashmir. The State seen as federally structured either becomes independent or joins Pakistan. While Abdullah does not declare what option he favors, he admits that in 1947 he erred by trusting Nehru. "I trusted Nehru and I never thought Nehru would change," he said while referring to commitment by India about accession being provisional. Convention's basic positions are supported by Awami Action Committee (set up at time of disappearance of holy relic from Hazratbal) of Mirwaiz Maulvi Muhammad Farooq.
  • July: On visit to Srinagar, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi says, "The accession of Kashmir is part of our history, and history cannot be reversed or changed. The Kashmir question has been settled once for all." This clear declaration of Indian position comes in, followed by arrests of political activists known to favor Pakistan.
  • An organization calling itself Al-Fatah carries out number of acts of sabotage in Valley, first time such actions have taken place in this manner.
 
1971
  • January 14: Plebiscite Front led by Sheikh Abdullah is banned by the Indian Home Ministry under Unlawful Activities Act to keep it out of State elections.
  • January 30: Ganga, an Indian Airlines Fokker Friendship airliner with 30 passengers and crew on board is hijacked to Lahore while flying from Srinagar to Jammu by two young Kashmiris seeking release of 36 political prisoners in Indian-held Kashmir, asylum in Pakistan for them and their families' which are still in Srinagar.
  • February 1: The hijackers release passengers and crew who cross over into India.
  • February 2: Airliner set on fire and destroyed by hijackers before India can take decision on their demands. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whose PPP has scored runaway victories in Punjab and Sindh in December 1970 elections, declares that the hijackers are "two brave men" and have shown that "no power on earth can stifle the Kashmiris' struggle for liberation.
  • February 3: India holds Pakistan responsible for destruction of aircraft.
  • February 4: India announces that it has suspended with immediate effect over flight of all Pakistani aircraft, both civil and military over Indian territory. It also demands that hijackers be surrendered by Pakistan. Pakistan replies that the hijacking is directly attributable to Indian repression in Kashmir and also protests against continuing hostile demonstrations outside its Delhi mission and burning of some of its property. Meanwhile, political crisis in Pakistan deepens every day with no chance of compromise between Sheikh Mujibur Rehman's Awami League and Z.A. Bhutto's PPP, with Gen Yahya Khan's military regime acting most dubiously.
  • Meanwhile, G.M. Sadiq, Chief Minister of occupied Kashmir calls hijacking an Indian plot and one of the two hijackers is an Indian intelligence agent. This is confirmed by Sheikh Abdullah one week later. People in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, however, continue to view hijackers as Kashmiri heroes. Pakistan government believes entire episode has been staged to isolate East Pakistan and make it difficult for federal authority to ship arms and soldiers there.
  • March 25: Yahya Khan cracks down on Awami League which has for weeks been defying federal authority and demanding transfer of power. Army units fan out all over East Pakistan and there is much wanton killing, some of it in revenge for atrocities committed by Bengalis against West Pakistanis and Biharis. Hundreds of thousands of refugees pour into West Bengal and situation goes from bad to worse each day. Indians arm and train East Pakistanis extensively in coming months and province is plunged into violence with no sign of a political settlement since Yahya Khan has declared Mujib traitor. Indian infiltration increases and Pakistani garrison is stretched out and finds itself beleaguered and short on resources.
  • December 3: To relieve pressure on East Pakistan, Yahya Khan authorizes attack on India from West. This operation makes no headway, but gives India the excuse it has been looking for.
  • December 16: Full-scale military invasion of East Pakistan by Indian army gets underway and after some fighting Pakistani commander Gen. A.K. Niazi surrenders. Cease-fire declared in West.
  • December 20: Yahya Khan steps down and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto takes over as President of Pakistan. East Pakistan has meanwhile declared itself independent and is Bangladesh.
 
1972
  • June 28-July 2: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Indira Gandhi meet in Simla, India, to deal with consequences of 1971. On the night of July 2-3, after what looks like a deadlock in negotiations between delegations, the two leaders find agreement and thus come to be signed what is known since as Simla Agreement. On Jammu and Kashmir, the accord renames cease-fire line as line of actual control - to reflect some minor adjustments that are mutually agreed on - and while it pledges both sides to respect the new line, a proviso added at Bhutto's insistence says this will be "without prejudice to the recognized position of either side.” It also commits both countries to "further undertake to refrain from the threat of use of force in violation of this line".
  • July 3: On return to Lahore, Bhutto announces that "on the vital question of Kashmir too, we have made no compromise, We told them ... categorically that the people of Kashmir must exercise their right of self-determination. This was a question which can be decided only by the people of Kashmir. Neither Pakistan nor India had any say in this matter." However, at Simla, no representative of the people of Jammu and Kashmir from any side is present. Simla Agreement also speaks of bilateral relations being governed by principles and purposes of UN Charter and draws a distinction between the international border between Pakistan and India and line of control in State. India has argued since that Simla rules out referral of Kashmir to an international body including United Nations, while Pakistan maintains that Shimla does no such thing and, in any case, bilateral agreements cannot override international agreements. To Pakistan, UNCIP resolutions on Kashmir remain unaffected by Shimla, while India maintains that Kashmir has to be settled bilaterally without third party intervention as laid down in Shimla Agreement.
  • June: Externment order passed against Shaikh Abdullah is lifted, followed by removal of similar orders against Mirza Afzal Beg and G.M. Shah, Abdullah's son-in-law. Begum Abdullah has already been allowed to enter the State in April.
  • June 19: Abdullah returns to Srinagar and declares that people of Jammu and Kashmir have still to exercise right to self-determination. Of Simla Agreement, he says that neither India nor Pakistan have any right to decide State's fate over the heads of its people. His utterances appear to suggest that he does not consider State's accession to India in October 1947 as final.
 
1973
  • January 12: Ban on Plebiscite Front is not renewed when it expires.
  • May 17: Students in Anantnag, not far from Srinagar, protest against an image of the Holy Prophet in a children's encyclopedia. By May 20, trouble spreads to Srinagar with strikes and marches, all with a strong anti-India flavour. Total strike in Valley with public transport halted. Police opens fire and there are some deaths. By May 27, 100 have been arrested and four have died in Srinagar alone.
  • November 10: Prime Minister Z. A. Bhutto of Pakistan while visiting Muzaffarabad, makes highly critical speech about India's failure to hold plebiscite in Kashmir.
  • November 11: There are riots in Srinagar over renaming of a women's college after Jawaharlal Nehru. There is further unrest in entire Valley, which continues for next two weeks.
 
1974
  • Early-1974: Series of meetings take place between Mrs Gandhi herself, her emissaries and Sheikh Abdullah and Mirza Afzal Beg over terms on which peace can be made with the once-estranged Kashmiri leader. Abdullah and Indian External Affairs Minister Sardar Swarn Singh meet several times in June, while Beg holds series of meetings with former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan G. Parthasarathi.
  • July 13: Day was observed as Martyrs' Day - commemorating those who died in police firing on unarmed Kashmiris in 1931. There are serious clashes in Srinagar between Mirwaiz Farooq's Awami Action Committee and Abdullah's supporters. The former believed that as in the past Abdullah has sold himself to India and bartered away Kashmir's future.
  • November 13: Mirza Afzal Beg and Parthasarathi agree on all terms discussed during series of meetings.
 
1975
  • February 12: Delhi Accord is accepted formally by Abdullah.
  • February 24: Mrs. Gandhi makes contents public of what has now come to be known as 'Delhi Accord'.
  • February 25: Abdullah is sworn in as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir after Congress legislative party elects him as its leader. The Delhi Accord, contrary to Abdullah's wishes, does not return position as it stood before his dismissal in August 1953. It implies clearly that accession of State to India is final. The Accord's key provision says "The State of Jammu and Kashmir, which is a constituent unit of the Union of India shall in its relations with the Union, continue to be governed by Article-370 of the Constitution of India". The Union Parliament "will continue to have power to make laws relating to the prevention of activities directed towards disclaiming, questioning or disrupting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India or secession of a part of the territory from the Union." Congress Party in State legislature elects Sheikh Abdullah as leader. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto calls countrywide strike in Pakistan and Indian held Kashmir for February 28.
  • February 28: Response to Bhutto's strike call is overwhelming. He says Abdullah, who calls himself a champion of democracy is about to become head of government of a party to which he does not belong in an Assembly of which he is not even a member.
  • March 1: Pakistan protests to United Nations arguing that Delhi Accord violates both Simla Agreement and UN requirements for Kashmir plebiscite. China seconds Pakistan on March 12. Right-wing Hindus in Jammu oppose Accord and call for abrogation of Article-370 and State's full and complete absorption in Indian Union.
  • March 4: Delhi Accord receives approval of Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) massively.
  • March 13: Delhi Accord is passed by Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Indian Parliament).
  • July 5: Abdullah revives National Conference after dissolving Plebiscite Front with himself as President.
 
1976
  • September: Abdullah announces that he intends to bring some form of alliance with Awami Action Committee led by Mirwaiz Farooq who has been held for a short time in June after an anti-Abdullah demonstration. However, the promised rapprochement never quite takes place.
 
1977
  • March: Members of Congress in (Indian-held) Kashmir Assembly withdraw support from Sheikh Abdullah's administration under the urging of Delhi, which is increasingly uncomfortable with the Sheikh and openly disenchanted with Delhi Accord of 1975.
  • March 16-20: Elections called by Mrs. Gandhi produce unexpected results, she loses and state of emergency under which she has been ruling is lifted.
  • March 27: Abdullah persuades Governor of Indian-held Kashmir to dissolve Assembly and order fresh elections in order to defeat conspiracies being hatched against him.
  • June 30-July 3: Elections take place and Abdullah's National Conference wins 47 out of 76 Assembly seats.
  • July 5: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government is overthrown in a coup by his army chief, Gen. Zia-ul-Haq.
 
1978
  • December: Riots break out in Poonch.
 
1979
  • January-March: Riots that broke out in Poonch city in December 1978 continue into January through March against charges of nepotism by National Conference government. Police firing kills 10 people. There are also riots in Jammu over "regional imbalances".
  • June: Four parties including one formed by Abdullah's old comrade, Afzal Beg, form alliance against National Conference and passage of a controversial bill that, if passed, can only go towards establishment of one-party rule.
  • September 29: Controversial Bill is passed.
 
1980
  • January: Mrs. Gandhi is returned to power in India.
  • July13: Abdullah says, "No one would be allowed to enslave us again”.
  • July 22: Mrs. Gandhi reprimands Abdullah when they meet in Delhi.
 
1981
  • January 23: Abdullah nominates his son, Farooq Abdullah, as his successor.
  • August: Abdullah gets Farooq Abdullah elected President of National Conference.
  • Disagreement between Abdullah and Delhi over definition of who is or isn't a Kashmiri citizen ensues. The Resettlement Bill which Abdullah wants passed will practically obliterate the cease-fire line in the sense that refugees who from Indian-held Kashmir living in Azad Kashmir obtain right of return to State as if they are returning residents.
 
1982
  • September 8: Sheikh Abdullah dies in Srinagar. Farooq Abdullah takes over as Chief Minister.
 
1983
  • January-May: Relations between Farooq and Delhi deteriorate. National Conference announces that it is fighting State election due that year, by contesting all 76 seats, leaving Congress (Indira group) no option but to follow suit. National Conference sweeps Valley in May elections, winning 46 seats, while Congress scores landslide in Jammu with 26 seats. Riots in Srinagar with several hundred injured.
  • October 5-6: Farooq Abdullah hosts conclave of Indian opposition parties in Srinagar.
 
1984
  • February 11: Maqbul Butt, head of Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front hanged in Tihar jail in Delhi. Widespread protests in Pakistan, Azad Kashmir and Valley.
  • April 26: Jagmohan is appointed as the Governor of Indian-held Kashmir.
  • July 2: Intrigue hatched against Farooq by new Governor Jagmohan leads to dismissal of his government.
  • July 13: Curfew imposed on Martyrs' Day.
  • July 31: Assembly summoned by Jagmohan, and through defections and other methods mandate is conferred on G.M Shah by 43 votes to zero with Farooq and his party-men staging walkout.
 
1985
  • August 15: Police fires on anti-India demonstration in Srinagar on Indian Independence Day.
  • March 7: G.M. Shah Government is bundled out of office.
  • November 7: Farooq Abdullah is returned to power but only after he has agreed to share power with Congress.
 
1986
  • January 19: 14 Muslim parties form United Muslim Front.
 
1987
  • March 23: Elections are held and Farooq wins 38 seats, mostly in Valley, with Congress taking 24 seats from Jammu.
  • March 27: Farooq is once again sworn in as Chief Minister. Widespread rigging reported and leaders of United Muslim Front arrested.
 
1988
  • June 10: Protest march in Srinagar against rise in power rates is fired on. Three killed; three-day strike follows.
  • August 15: Indian Independence Day sees Srinagar under curfew.
  • August 17: Demonstrations in Srinagar streets at the news of Pakistan President Zia-ul-Haq's death in plane crash.
  • August 18: Four protesters shot dead by police.
  • August 26: Three more protesters killed.
  • August 27: Curfew is lifted in Srinagar after 13 days.
  • September: DIG Kashmir, A M Watali's house attacked in Srinagar. One attacker killed.
 
1989
  • January-March: Protests against Salman Rushdie's book, The Satanic Verses, lead to massive demonstrations in Srinagar. 50 people are injured in clash with police. Protests and clashes with police continue.
  • April 3: Two bombs are thrown at police by crowd demonstrating against indiscriminate arrests of Kashmiri youth. Situation remains tense and marked by unrest and use of force by police for about one week.
  • July 11: Gen. K.V. Krishna Rao is sworn in as Governor in place of Jagmohan.
  • July 20: Communal clashes take place in Leh, Ladakh.
  • August 15: Indian Independence Day is marked by total strike in Srinagar.
  • August 25: Indian troops desecrate the Central Jamia Mosque, Srinagar. Hundreds of believers were severely beaten up and dozens of innocent people arrested by the Indian troops.
  • September 15: Hindu right-wing BJP leader Jia Lal Taploo is shot dead by unknown attackers.
  • November 4: Neel Kanth Ganjoo who had sentenced JKLF leader Maqbool Butt to death is killed.
  • December 8: JKLF kidnaps Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who is viewed as India's prime Kashmiri collaborator.
  • December 13: Rubaiya is released unharmed in exchange of five JKLF men detained by occupation authorities.
  • December 15: Curfew is imposed in entire Valley and five people are killed by police.
 
1990
  • January 19: Jagmohan is brought back as Governor and Governor Rule is declared again. Farooq Abdullah resigns as Chief Minister. Jagmohan 'celebrates' his return to power by ordering night-long house-to-house searches in Srinagar.
  • January 20: Protests against these excesses are dealt with sternly and 35 Kashmiris are killed.
  • January 22: Eight Kashmiris are killed in firing by security forces in Srinagar. 200 policemen protest against killing of their comrades by Indian para-military forces.
  • February 10: 10 youth are killed in Indian army firing while crossing the ceasefire line from Chakothi on the call of National Liberation Front.
  • February 13: Lassa Koul, director of Indian TV channel Doordarshan's Srinagar station is killed by unknown assailants.
  • February 16: Jagmohan dissolves State Assembly.
  • March 01: Mass exodus of Kashmiri Pundits begins from Valley largely because of Jagmohan's orders, the aim being to give situation religious, communal color. 30 killed in Zakura, near Hazratbal shrine and Barzala locality of Srinagar.
  • March 4: The liberation organisations advocating Kashmiris' accession with Pakistan form a forum, Tehreek-e-Hurriyate Kashmir in Srinagar. Advocate Mian Abdul Qayoom heads the forum.
  • March 24: Mir Mustafa, former Assembly member kidnapped and killed.
  • April 6: Mushir-ul-Haq, Kashmir University vice-chancellor is kidnapped with 2 others by Jammu-Kashmir Students Liberation Front.
  • April 10-11: The kidnapped are killed.
  • May 21: Mirwaiz Maulvi Mohammad Farooq is killed. His funeral procession is fired on by security forces killing 50.
  • May 25: Jagmohan resigns.
  • May 26: Jagmohan is succeeded by Girish Chandra Saxena, once security adviser to Rajiv Gandhi and V.P. Singh.
 
1991
  • May 5: 73 Kashmiris described by India as militants are killed near cease-fire line.
  • May 8: Up to 50 people are killed when security forces fire at funeral procession.
 
1992
  • February 11: JKLF leader Amanullah Khan leads march through Azad Kashmir in a bid to cross cease-fire line. Marchers stopped well short of line, many are arrested.
  • April 14: 14 innocent Kashmiris are killed by Indian forces near Srinagar in retaliation against firing at two officers.
  • July 15: JKLF and Hizbul Mujahideen declare self-determination as their common goal.
 
1993
  • January 7: 40 Kashmiris killed in Sopore in retaliatory action by Indian forces.
  • March 7: Nearly 30 parties and groups including JKLF, join together to form All-Parties Hurriyat Conference in Srinagar, headed by Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, son of the slain Mirwaiz Maulvi Mohammad Farooq.
  • March 12: Gen. K.V. Krishna Rao is appointed Governor.
  • April 23: State police go on strike against killing of Constable Riyaz Ahmed in Indian army custody. Army disarms strikers.
  • May 01: Almost entire town of Sopore destroyed by fire believed to have been started by Indian security troops.
  • October: US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robin Raphel in a briefing to correspondents in Washington casts doubts about finality and even validity of instrument of accession signed by Maharaja to join Jammu and Kashmir State to India in 1947. Raphel's words.
  • " We view Kashmir as a disputed territory and that means that we do not recognize that instrument of accession as meaning that Kashmir is forevermore an integral part of India." This causes uproar in India where US is denounced for interference in India's internal affairs. Subsequently, on several occasions, administration officials reiterate that US considers entire State as disputed territory.
  • October 15: Indian troops besiege Hazratbal shrine; heavy paramilitary contingents are reinforced and sandy bag bunkers erected around the shrine before and after the siege. More than 65 people including women and children are captivated without any supply of food and essential commodities for 32 successive days. Even water supply to the shrine was cut off after the siege.
  • October 22: More than 50 protesters are martyred and another 100 injured in indiscriminate firing by paramilitary forces in Bijbehara, Islamabad.
  • November 16: Complete shutdown observed in Kashmir for 32 days till the siege was lifted. Shrine is still under surveillance of troops frisking every visitor. The month-long siege is finally resolved through negotiations and those holed up are allowed safe passage. During this crisis, Hurriyat Conference gains importance as it organizes mass boycotts, public demonstrations and protests throughout the Valley to protest siege of Kashmir's holiest shrine. Hurriyat leaders play important role in negotiating end to crisis.
 
1994
  • March: In an interview in Geneva to a Pakistani newspaper correspondent, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Salman Khurshid says India does not consider people of Jammu and Kashmir party to the dispute.
 
1995
  • January 01: British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd stresses the need for an end to encouragement of violence in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
  • January 8: Pakistan Foreign Minister Sardar Aasef Ahmad Ali believes the government has quite successfully managed to chip away India's citadel of maintaining status quo on Kashmir. The Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Kashmir, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan says that an international conspiracy was being hatched in the name of elections to divert the attention of the world community from the human rights violations being committed by India in occupied Kashmir.
  • January 9: India declares occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory a "backward" state, offering tax breaks and concessions to businesses in a bid to get rid of freedom movement.
  • January 10: UN resolutions on an issue could not become "old or irrelevant", says George Galloway, Member of British Parliament, adding, "adoption of double-standards or choosing selectivity in the matter of UN resolutions or those in respect of violation of human rights is highly regrettable and unforgivable". Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Mohammad Abdul Qayyum Khan says Britain being a party to the subcontinent partition plan should play effective role in getting the Kashmir issue peacefully and politically resolved in accordance with internationally recognized principles instead of taking an indifferent or partisan attitude. India loses control over ground situation in occupied Kashmir and starts harassing journalists to cover up its massive human rights abuses. Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif criticizes British Foreign Minister Douglas Hurd's statement in which he had talked about 'outside interference' in Occupied Kashmir.
  • January 11: AJK Prime Minister Sardar Mohammad Abdul Qayyum Khan tells Robin Raphel that the Kashmiris desire peaceful and political solution of Kashmir problem and greatly value all efforts towards that end.
  • January 12: Indian authorities clamp curfew on southern Kashmir town of Islamabad following widespread protests after troops torched some 24 houses. The National Kashmir Conference expresses complete solidarity with the Kashmir freedom fighters and assures the brethren in held Kashmir that the Muslims across the globe in general and the people of Azad Kashmir and Pakistan in particular forthrightly support their just struggle for the realization of their inalienable right to self-determination. A member of the Norwegian Parliament Mr Athar Ali says that the Indian forces have let loose a constant reign of terror in Kashmir and the people of the territory were deprived of the right of self-determination which was recognized by the world community at the United Nations.
  • January 13: Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao says India would accept US help in settling dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir but the two countries would eventually have to resolve their differences themselves. Kashmir Watch, a London-based human rights agency, while reminding British Foreign Secretary Prime Minister Douglas Hurd of Lord Mountbatten's role in presiding over the Indian invasion, says the indifference of Britain towards what is happening in Kashmir, is painful.
  • January 14: Having failed to quell the freedom struggle through the use of brute and savage security forces, Indian intelligence agencies step up attempts to exploit the sectarian differences between various segments of the Mujahideen to create fissures in the freedom struggle and pit them against each other.
  • January 15: The occupation troops stormed a local mosque on the pretext of search and besides damaging doors and windows, demolished a portion. In addition, more than 12 protestors were arrested.
  • January 16: Big anti-India demonstrations were held in Srinagar and Doda to register the Kashmiris abhorrence to the ever-growing blood-thirst of the Indian forces.
  • January 18: The United States calls for a solution to the Kashmir issue because, as a senior defence official put it, "anybody" interested in stability in an area "that encompasses over a billion people has to look for a way to try to find methods for defusing the Kashmir dispute".
  • January 20: Ruling out the involvement of any third party in settling Pak-India disputes, India says it is ready to hear from Pakistan directly what elbow room they require to commence the talks.
  • January 20: Ruling out the involvement of any third party in settling Pak-India disputes, India says it is ready to hear from Pakistan directly what elbow room they require to commence the talks.
  • January 21: Events in occupied Kashmir remained among the most serious human rights situation in Asia, says Human Rights Watch World report 1995 on India.
  • January 22: As many as 3007 Kashmiri Muslims are still in detention in the Valley, says an official report of Pakistan conveyed to the Indian Human Rights Commission.
  • January 24: Two mosques are blown up, 17 people including five freedom fighters martyred and 235 others rounded up two days ahead of India's Republic Day at different in occupied Kashmir. Some leading US newspapers have criticized the "deafening silence" on India's human rights record as Clinton administration sets about to promote business deals with that country.
  • January 26: Eight persons are killed and 30 wounded in three bomb explosions in Srinagar stadium during ceremony to mark India's Republic Day.
  • January 27: Senior Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Gilani says accession of Kashmir to Pakistan is must. Hindus in Jammu and its surrounding areas go on rampage, looting and putting on fire the Muslim localities and killing innocent Kashmiris in reaction to attack on India's Republic Day function at Srinagar.
  • January 31: Chairman Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan says that Pakistan is the only hurdle in the way of India in becoming a lord in South Asia.
  • February 1: Mirwaiz Maulvi Umar Farooq rejects Douglas Hurd's view that 40-year-old UN resolutions on Kashmiris' right of self-determination have become outdated saying it is the UN commitment to the Kashmiris to get their right to be given to them. Amnesty International again puts India in the dock for widespread torture and deaths in custody in occupied Kashmir.
  • February 2: US State Department in its annual report for 1994 holds Indian forces responsible for many human rights abuses in occupied Kashmir.
  • February 3: US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, John Shattuck denies the Clinton administration had backed away from its strong 1993 stance on human rights abuses in Indian-held Kashmir because of its new focus on economic and trade opportunities, saying "the subject of human rights is very high on our agenda." Pakistan Ambassador Ahmad Kamal in a statement at the 51st session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva strongly rebuts India's allegation that it is abetting terrorism across its border saying the allegation is ridiculous. Amnesty International says their repeated requests for permission to send a team of researchers to the area, have so far not received a positive response. The Indian government has neither turned down the request nor accepted.
  • February 4: India, bowing to international pressure, agrees to allow the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) an access to detainees in jails and detention centers in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Turkish President Suleyman Demirel appeals to Pakistan and India to settle the Kashmir issue bilaterally through dialogue under the aegis of the Simla Accord. Pakistan ambassador in the United Nations Ahmad Kamal says that right of self-determination is a fundamental right which must be conceded to the peace of Kashmir and Palestine. Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto urges India to give up oppression in IHK and enter into serious dialogue with Pakistan to find out ways for the implementation of UN resolutions on Kashmir issue.
  • February 5: Life in Pakistan comes to a standstill due to strike observed to express solidarity with the Kashmiris fighting for the right of self-determination.
  • February 6: Pakistan says the Indian concession of allowing ICRC into J&K has been done under pressure and is a mere ploy to stave off international censure coming in its way at the ongoing session of the UNHRC in Geneva.
  • February 7: APHC leaders scheduled to meet a large group of Members of British Parliament drawn from all the three main political parties, again make it plain that they will not take part in any Indian sponsored elections in held Kashmir.
  • February 10: The US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Ms Robin Raphel tells a House subcommittee that the Administration has no information on reports originating in India that some Kashmiri militants given permission to attend OIC summit at Casablanca are raising funds in Saudi Arabia. Prof Dr Dhirendra Sharma of science policy at the JN University in an article appearing in India's Sunday Observer, says "the real challenge to India's sovereignty over Kashmir, does not come from across the border but from India's continued violation of social contract with the Kashmiri people".
  • February 11: Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto says Pakistan will continue supporting Kashmiris in their struggle for freedom by extending fullest moral, political and diplomatic help and will try its best to make the world realize the gravity of the issue.
  • February 13: The Indian National Human Rights Commission (INHRC) advises the Government that a team of Amnesty International members be allowed to visit Kashmir Valley to take an on-the-spot account of the human rights situation in the insurgency-infested Valley.
  • February 16: Somewhat piqued after the statement of the Union Home Minister, Mr. S.B. Chavan in the Lok Sabha that the US is fishing in the troubled waters of Jammu and Kashmir, the US embassy in Delhi seeks clarification on Mr. Chavan's views from the Ministry of External Affairs though this has been done informally.
  • February 18: An Editorial in Toronto Star terms Kashmir as a "dark stain" on India as more than 17,000 people have been killed in the Kashmir Valley since 1989.
  • February 24: Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, leader of the Pakistan delegation at the 51st session of Human Rights Commission makes extensive diplomatic contacts to campaign for Kashmir.
  • March 2: The United States reaffirms that Kashmir is a disputed territory and that for any resolution of the problem to be stable and long lasting, the wishes of the people of Kashmir have to be taken into account. A report of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) says that India is violating human rights in Jammu and Kashmir.
  • March 5: Dorab Patel, former Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and a member of the International Commission of Jurists says that Pakistan will not accept general elections in the IHK as an alternative to the plebiscite which the UN resolutions promised to the people of this war-torn state.
  • March 9: The 51st session of the UN commission on Human Rights officially circulates a memorandum concerning human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir. US Assistant Secretary Robin Raphel says a resolution of the Kashmir issue is not only "long overdue", it is "essential for the long-term stability of the region as a whole". If Pakistan and India make a request "the Unites States has offered to assist" in a solution.
  • March 11: War of words between government of India and Amnesty International takes an extraordinary turn with the AI demanding that Indian forces' personnel suspected of involvement in torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Jammu and Kashmir be suspended from active duty during the course of investigations.
  • March 13: Notwithstanding the repeated assurances of Indian administration that its forces will not enter the Holy Charar Sharif town of Central Kashmir where some prominent Mujahideen have been camping for last two months, the situation in and around the town continues to be grave with both security forces and the freedom fighters fortifying their bases.
  • March 17: India is once again under the fire for its human rights record in Kashmir at a hearing of the House Sub-Committee on Asia and the Pacific.
  • March 18: Members belonging to the main political parties at a parliamentary debate marking the Commonwealth Day, urge Commonwealth initiative to resolve the Kashmir issue. The US secretary of state, John Shattuck, and director of Asia watch, Asia, Gender Zevak, advise the Clinton administration to use its influence to bring an end to the deplorable situation. In an address to the sub-committee of Congress, Shattuck terms the situation in Kashmir like a blazing inferno which could flare up any time.
  • March 29: Sir Frederick Bennett, Conservative MP for 34 years and now a Privy Counselor for life, says the people of Kashmir would be the only people regaining their freedom having once thrown the yoke of imperial domination yet deprived of the right of self-determination, forced instead to exchange one alien rule by another, and much more rigorous one, than that of the outgoing British Raj.
  • March 31: US Secretary of State Warren Christopher says resolution of some seemingly intractable international problems during last two years has given hope that solution of Kashmir issue would also be found. Leaders of the liberation groups reject the idea of elections held under the Indian constitution in Jammu and Kashmir as a ploy to placate world opinion, and threatens his party will make any such polls in Jammu and Ladakh impossible.
  • April 1: APHC demands of the Human Rights Commission to send a fact-finding mission to occupied Kashmir to stop India from its repressive acts.
  • April 2: The Chairman of the National Assembly's Kashmir Committee, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan says Pakistan will not approve of any Camp David-style agreement on Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan. Jammu-Kashmir Peoples League leader Shabbir Ahmad Shah while speaking at the foreign correspondent club reiterates that elections are no alternative to "right of self-determination" and says if polls are at all organized in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the people in unison will boycott them.
  • April 4: The disclosure by Prof P.O. Dhar, who was secretary to Indira Gandhi and a member of the Indian delegation at the Simla talks, says that Indira and Z.A. Bhutto had a "secret understanding" for converting the Line of Control in Kashmir as a permanent solution to the dispute has caused many Kashmir observers to raise eyebrows and speculate if it is intended to signal India's willingness to begin negotiations with Benazir Bhutto on this basis. German President, Herr Roman Herzog says Kashmir is the most serious conflict in the region and bloodshed must stop there.
  • April 9: Indian Prime Minister, in his message of felicitations to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on her assumption of office in October 1993, offered to discuss all aspects (of Kashmir). Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan S.K. Lambah tells daily The Nation that India is ready for a dialogue on Kashmir with Pakistan at any time, at any level and without any condition.
  • April 14: Lord Eric Avebury, Chairman of the British Parliamentary Human Rights Group, bitterly criticized the British government for putting too much faith in a political process in held Kashmir reminding that not more than four percent of the people of Kashmir had taken part in the last elections for the Lok Sabha in 1989.
  • April 15: Thomas M Cox Chairman British and Pakistan Parliamentary Group in House of Commons, Gary Waller, MP and Maxwell tell a joint Press conference that they will approach Clinton Administration through their government to pressure India to resolve Kashmir dispute as it is a threat to regional peace.
  • April 19: Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukerjee says he is ready for talks with Pakistan at "anyplace, anytime" but an upcoming South Asian summit is not the forum for such bilateral discussions.
  • April 25: A national lobby of the British Parliament on Kashmir is launched as a 'standing body' to create awareness about the Kashmir among the British people and seek wider support across the country for its resolution.
  • April 27: The ambassadors of the European Commission in India meet Kashmiri guerilla leaders for talks to find a political solution to the crisis in the Indian-occupied state.
  • May 3: UN Human Rights Commissioner Jose Ayala Lasso meets Muslim leaders who complain about rampant rights violations in the Indian-held Kashmir.
  • May 4: Pakistan President Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari rules out the third option of independent Kashmir for the resolution of the Kashmir issue because it betrays the basic philosophy of the 1947 Partition Plan. Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao says that Kashmir issue can be resolved only in a "conducive and congenial atmosphere between India and Pakistan."
  • May 7: Pakistan Foreign Minister Sardar Asef Ahmed Ali says Simla agreement is an open document and there are no secret clauses.
  • May 9: Several hundred homes are gutted on the eve of Eid as a mysterious fire rages through Chrar Sharif where freedom fighters have been under siege of the Indian army for two months. Pro-liberation groups say that the incident is the handiwork of Indian troops.
  • May 12: Anti-India protests engulf Kashmir Valley as a result of destruction of the 650-year-old mausoleum of Sheikh Nooruddin Wali (R.A.) and an adjacent mosque. However, India blames Pakistan for engineering destruction of a shrine in Kashmir and issues a strong warning against 'interference in its internal affairs'.
  • May 13: Angry Kashmiris defy a curfew and hold noisy demonstrations across the Kashmir Valley for the third day to protest against the burning of a mosque and the shrine of Sheikh Nooruddin Wali in Charar Sharif.
  • May 14: The US Assistant Secretary, Ms Robin Raphel says that Kashmir remains a primary source of tension between India and Pakistan and the violence and destruction that occurred in Charar Sharif is "deeply saddening", adding that "unfortunately, it is only the latest incident in a tragic conflict that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. This conflict must be ended peacefully and as soon as possible".
  • May 15: The leadership of Pakistan Muslim League demands of the government to suspend all kinds of commercial and diplomatic ties with India in protest against burning of the holy shrine and its adjoining mosque in Charar Sharif. The Senate of Pakistan unanimously adopts resolution condemning Charar Sharif sacrilege.
  • May 16: The OIC Contact Group on Kashmir strongly condemns the "brutal Indian military operation" in Charar Sharif and urges India to withdraw its forces from there. A formal resolution is moved in US Congress calling on Pakistan, India and the legitimate representatives of the people of Kashmir to enter into negotiations and resolve the Kashmir conflict peacefully.
  • May 17: Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukerjee says New Delhi is committed to resolving all its disputes with Islamabad, including over Kashmir, bilaterally and peacefully. He rules out third country mediation in Kashmir. Yet another revered shrine is besieged by the Indian troops soon after the burning of Charar Sharif.
  • May 18: On the eve of the Black Day to protest against the desecration of the Charar Sharif shrine, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto calls upon India to start negotiations with Pakistan on the modalities to hold plebiscite in Kashmir. APHC rejects New Delhi's offer of talks on Kashmir, saying it will not enter into any dialogue with New Delhi unless it admits Kashmir as a disputed territory.
  • May 20: King Hassan-II of Morocco, chairman of OIC, expresses deep anguish and indignation at the destruction of the holy shrine of Sheikh Nooruddin Wali by Indian armed personnel adding that this outrage is shared with the peoples of Kashmir and Pakistan not only by Muslims but all peace-loving people across the world.
  • May 25: Damascus Declaration signed in the OIC Information Ministers' Conference endorses the resolution of OIC countries demanding a peaceful solution to Jammu and Kashmir. Uzbekistan supports Kashmiris right of self-determination as set out in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. Pakistan President Farooq Leghari says failure of 600,000 Indian troops to overcome a small valley of Kashmir has proved that the freedom movement of Mujahideen is not only indigenous but also sustainable.
  • May 29: New Delhi decides to extend federal rule over Indian-occupied Kashmir by another six months after the election chief said polls could not be held by mid-July, when the latest term of central rule expires.
  • June 2: Iran renews its mediation offer for peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue, which has been hanging fire on subcontinent for the last four decades. Pakistan's Ambassador to Hungary, Dr. B.A. Malik says the resolution of Kashmir under the UN Security Council resolutions is the responsibility of European and civilized nations.
  • June 3: US Ambassador Frank Wisner says Pakistan, India and the people of Jammu and Kashmir must together work out an agreement to solve the Kashmir issue.
  • June 16: Turkmenistan urges India to exercise restraint in occupied Kashmir and expresses concern over the tragic incident of Charar Sharif.
  • June 23: A bipartisan resolution is moved in the US Senate condemning Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir and urging both India and Pakistan to enter into negotiations with the legitimate representatives of the Kashmiri people to resolve the dispute peacefully.
  • June 24: US Ambassador to Delhi Frank Wisner arrives in Indian-occupied Kashmir on a four-day visit, the first by a senior Washington envoy since the launching of liberation movement by Kashmiris five years ago.
  • July 4: President of the State of Palestine Yasser Arafat reaffirms his support to all people struggling for their right of self-determination especially the brotherly people of Kashmir, in compliance with the relevant UN Resolutions. Former Japanese Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata says Kashmir is a thorny issue and unless India takes initiatives to resolve this key problem, peace in South Asia remains threatened.
  • July 5: The Amnesty report for 1994 says that in Jammu and Kashmir, deaths in custody as a result of torture or shooting have reached extraordinary levels and none of the perpetrators is brought to justice.
  • Four foreign tourists - two Americans John Donald and Donald Fred Hustchins, and two Britons Paul Well and Keith Moningan, are abducted by unknown persons from the tourist resort of Pahalgam, 100 kms from Srinagar.
  • July 6: British High Commissioner to India Sir Nicholas Fenn while addressing a gathering of businessmen and industrialists in London says the Kashmir issue is the main hurdle in the development of economic cooperation between countries of South Asia region.
  • July 13: Indian authorities impose curfew in parts of Jammu and Kashmir amid clashes between police and Kashmiris commemorating the martyrdom of several Kashmiris on July 13, 1931.
  • The Kashmir issue gains across-party support in British Parliament where the dispute finds persistent echo second only to the Parliament in Islamabad.
  • July 15: Former Indian Foreign Secretary J.N. Dixit proposes that New Delhi accept a popular Kashmiri demand for a plebiscite in the Himalayan region.
  • July 20: New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, in a report titled On the Razor's Edge, says the kidnapping this month of four journalists in Kashmir is just the latest example of a full clampdown on any independent reporting in that region.
  • July 24: Former Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shaharyar M. Khan, currently serving as the UN secretary-general's special envoy for Rwanda, and J.N. Dixit, India's Foreign Secretary until 1992, tell Wilton Park conference sponsored by the Foreign and Commonwealth office in London that a political solution of the Kashmir conflict has to be found, one which also fulfils the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
  • July 30: Chairman of the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) Human Rights Commission, Rajai Khorasani, expresses deep concern over the atrocities being committed by the Indian occupation forces against the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
  • August 4: The Washington Post lambastes India over the reign of state terrorism its armed forces had unleashed in occupied Kashmir.
  • August 11: The deputy head of Asian Desk in Foreign and Commonwealth Secretariat Nick Kay admits that the atrocities committed in the occupied Kashmir have been noted on the international level. The Kashmir issue should be solved by mutual negotiations between Pakistan and India according to Simla agreement.
  • August 13: J&K police recovers headless body of one of the Western hostages about 50 km south of Srinagar. Pakistan expresses deep shock over the killing of Norwegian hostage and appeals for immediate release of the remaining four Western hostages.
  • Mr. Gerald Kaufman, MP and a former shadow foreign secretary of British Labour Party, says Kashmir is a disputed matter and it should be resolved according to the UN resolutions.
  • August 16: The OIC fully supports the struggle of the Kashmiri people and sympathizes with the people of Kashmir, who are suffering as a result of the Indian atrocities in Indian-held territory.
  • August 18: A representative of the World Muslim Congress and Chairman, Kashmir Commission of Jurists, Srinagar, Jalil Andrabi tells the 47th session of the sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities at Geneva that India's denial of the right of self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir is a perpetual threat to peace in South Asia.
  • August 18: A representative of the World Muslim Congress and Chairman, Kashmir Commission of Jurists, Srinagar, Jalil Andrabi tells the 47th session of the sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities at Geneva that India's denial of the right of self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir is a perpetual threat to peace in South Asia.
  • August 31: The Iranian ambassador to Pakistan Mohammad Mahdi Akhondzadeh calls for an early resolution of the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India in accordance with the wishes of their people.
  • September 4: At least 15 persons are killed and over 20 others injured in car bomb explosion outside the State Bank of India branch in Srinagar.
  • September 7: 3 persons including correspondent Yousuf Jamil are injured in bomb attack by unidentified armed persons on the BBC office in Srinagar.
  • September 9: A general strike called to condemn bomb attack on journalists paralyses the Kashmir Valley.
  • October 13: Chairman of the United Kingdom Parliamentary Human Rights group, Eric Avebury describes the situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir as one of the greatest tragedies of modern times, and demands urgent measures to curb the Indian oppression of the innocent people and for the solution of the dispute.
  • October 17: A 3-member delegation from occupied Kashmir led by APHC chief, Mir Waiz Umar Farooq, visiting Cartagenda, Colombia, for the Non-Aligned Summit, is detained for six hours by local authorities on Indian accusation that they are 'terrorists'.
  • October 18: The President of the Security Council, Mr. Ibrahim Gambari of Nigeria, receives three leading members of the Pakistan Kashmir delegation and discusses with them the latest situation in the disputed valley.
  • October 24: Chinese President Jiang Zemin in a meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister, reaffirms his country's unwavering support for the people of Kashmir.
  • October 25: Foreign diplomats based in New Delhi criticize India's handling of hostage issue.
  • October 27: The United States reaffirms its position on Kashmir as a disputed territory and says it remains concerned about the situation in the Valley.
  • November 10: Calling upon India to end its atrocities in the occupied Kashmir, Pakistan's President Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari appeals to the Commonwealth Secretary General to use his good offices "to help resolve the longstanding dispute in Kashmir".
  • November 11: Bitten and sore by the overwhelming media and human rights reports against its six-year-old campaign of suppression and repression in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir, India launches multi-million dollar propaganda war against Pakistan accusing it of aiding and abetting what it called as "terrorism" in the valley.
  • November 13: Chinese Vice-President of the Religious Bureau with the status of Minister of State, Lev Muhammad Ali says that the Kashmir issue be solved according to the UN resolutions.
  • November 21: Following Election Commission's rejection of polls in the Indian-held territory, the occupation personnel intensify their operations against the defenseless Kashmiris and start using helicopters during crackdowns. The occupied Kashmir newspapers suspend their publication for an indefinite period to protest the threats being hurled by an Indian armed agents' organization.
  • November 22: The highest-ranking UN official on human rights, Mr. Jose Ayala Lasso, in his annual report holds the Indian government responsible for ensuring the promotion and protection of human rights in occupied Kashmir and to take the necessary measures to punish the government officials responsible for abuses in the occupied territory.
  • November 29: Organizer of National Lobby on Kashmir, UK, Mr. George Galloway, MP, says that the aim of lobbying in the European Parliament was to build global pressure and moral weight to start peace process for solving the Kashmir problem.
  • December 1: American South Asian expert, Rodney Jones says Kashmir is a potential flashpoint that can lead to nuclearization of the conflict and urges both Pakistan and India to resolve the issue through negotiations.
  • December 8: A US State Department official says there has been no change in the US policy on Kashmir, which it continues to view as a dispute, that needs to be resolved by India and Pakistan in association with the people of the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir.
  • December 9: The President of Guinea, General Lansana Conte, says that the Kashmir is a matter of profound concern for OIC, which is making efforts to seek a fair and just solution of the dispute.
  • The AJK Prime Minister, Sardar Abdul Qayyum while giving foreign journalists an update on the current situation prevailing in Indian-held Kashmir in the Belgian capital, warns that a real danger of a nuclear conflict exists in the area due to India's expansionist designs.
  • December 12: OIC Foreign Ministers Conference adopts a comprehensive resolution on Jammu and Kashmir dispute with several new elements.
  • December 15: Prime Minister John Major of Britain and Prime Minister James Bolger of New Zealand say that they support an approach that would resolve the Kashmir dispute peacefully through dialogue and negotiations.
  • Rajya Sabha extends President's rule in occupied Kashmir for another six-month term effective from January 18. Earlier, President's rule had been extended in the state for seven times.
  • December 24: Russia desires Pakistan and India to settle the Kashmir issue through negotiations under the Simla Agreement, and expresses its readiness to play any role if requested by the two sides. Pakistan delegation addressing the third UN General Assembly committee session, takes India to task by exposing the human rights situation in Indian held Kashmir.
  • December 31: A report released by the Kashmir Monitoring Forum says that the Indian military machine exterminated 3,000 Kashmiris during 1995 to pulverize the freedom struggle.
 
1996
  • January 1: According to the report of a fact-finding team of eight civil liberties and democratic rights' organizations carried by the Indian daily “Statesman”, an overwhelming majority of deaths in occupied Kashmir are the work of Indian military forces.
  • January 4: Secretary General Motamar-al-Alam-Islami, Senator Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq, in a message, draws attention of UN High Commissioner for Human rights, Joshe Ayala Lasso and the President of International Committee of the Red Cross, Comelio Sommaruga, towards the growing violations of human rights in occupied Kashmir.
  • January 9: Former US National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft says he sees some room for private mediation between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, but only if it is sought by the two parties to the dispute.
  • January 13: A report of the Committee to Protect Journalists says, “put simply, there is no freedom of press in Kashmir (IHK) today. On a razor's edge is a critique of State oppression and censorship that prevails in the Indian held Kashmir.”
  • January 15: A group of Kashmiri leaders offers to help negotiate the safe release of four Westerners held hostage for over six months by unknown gunmen.
  • January 19: British Labour Party leaders hope that India will join Pakistan in a meaningful dialogue for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute, which one of them describes as an "ongoing tragedy'. The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook regrets that twenty years after the signing of the Simla Agreement no progress has been made towards reaching a solution of the Kashmir problem. However, the UN Resolutions on Kashmir are still valid and will remain valid.
  • January 23: Shoot-on-sight orders are issued and indefinite curfew clamped in major towns of Doda District after Indian soldiers gun down seven members of a family.
  • February 1: The former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court and Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir People Basic Rights (Protection) Commission, Justice Mufti Bahauddin Farooqui observes that President's rule in the occupied territory has no legal basis whatever and sadly enough, constitutes a tyrannical exercise. A rocket attack is carried out by the Indian forces on a mosque in Forward Kahuta in Azad Kashmir which kills 18 people and wounds several others.
  • February 11: Democratic Congressman Gary Ackerman says that the United States "stands ready as a friend" to alleviate the Kashmir problem out but asserts that such a role is not feasible unless all parties to the conflict want Washington to play a role and that such an invitation is not forthcoming Advisor to the Foreign Ministry of Uzbekistan, Goga Hadaycove, says the integrity of the state of Kashmir should remain intact and the Kashmiris be provided a chance to decide their future according to their aspirations.
  • February 16: APHC says, "favoring tripartite talks to end the Kashmir dispute, we appeal to India and Pakistan to allow our delegation to visit New Delhi, Islamabad and Azad Kashmir to initiate tripartite talks."
  • February 24: The US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, Ms Robin Raphel asserts that Kashmir has been a very difficult problem for Pakistan and India since their independence in 1947 as both the states claim it to be part of their territory and they have struggled over it in various ways over the years.
  • March 9: A Member of the British Parliament, Tom Cox deplores intransigent attitude of India to solve Kashmir issue saying that there is no mark of change in her pursuits.
  • March 12: APHC leaders Syed Ali Gilani, Kh Abdul Ghani Lone, Mohammad Yasin Malik and Javed Mir express grave concern about the safety of the life of Chairman of the Commission of Jurists, Jalil Andrabi.
  • March 19: Pakistan's Foreign Minister Sardar Assif Ahmad Ali again invites India for talks for the resolution of Kashmir dispute.
  • March 21: Pakistan extends full support to APHC's rejection of Indian plan to hold elections in Indian-held Kashmir and again calls upon New Delhi not to repeat another farcical polls but, instead, put an end to repression of the people in the Valley and respond to Pakistan's offer for a meaningful dialogue on the Kashmir dispute.
  • March 25: Indefinite curfew clamped and some 2,000 police and Indian paramilitary troops lay siege around Hazratbal Mosque a day after the Indian troops martyred 11 Kashmiri devotees.
  • March 26: A spokesperson of the Chinese permanent mission at the United Nations in Geneva while commenting on a malicious and distorted news story filed by an Indian journalist on a Chinese delegate's statement on the right to self-determination made at the current session of the Commission on Human Rights, says that China's position on Kashmir is consistent and remains unchanged.
  • March 27: Body of Chairman of Kashmir Commission of Jurists and journalist, Jalil Andrabi is found in a river sparking protests by Kashmiris who emphasize that he has been martyred by Indian forces Pakistan Ambassador Munir Akram in reply to Indian delegate's remarks at the 52nd session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, says Kashmir is a disputed territory awaiting a decision regarding its final disposition in accordance with UN Resolutions and by honoring its commitments on holding plebiscite in Kashmir, India will only contribute to the universal realization of the right to self-determination.
  • March 30: The US spokesman Nicholas Burns strongly condemns the brutal murder of Jalil Andrabi and calls upon India to conduct a full and transparent investigation into the circumstances around his abduction and murder. JKLF President Shabbir Ahmad Siddiqui and 29 others are killed as Indian troops blast a house with mortars on the outskirts of Srinagar.
  • April 3: The OIC condemns massacre of 22 Kashmiris by the Indian forces at Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar and the custodial killing of Jalil Andrabi.
  • April 7: Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao says India is committed to holding dialogue with Pakistan on all issues including Kashmir without any preconditions but rules out third-party mediation. India is sending additional 60,000 troops to occupied Kashmir to beef up its forces there to ensure holding of coming Lok Sabha farcical polls.
  • April 9: Chairman US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jesse Helms says the best US response to growing tension in South Asia will be the American mediation on Kashmir with the vigor that was dedicated to Middle East peacemaking.
  • April 10: British Labour member of the European Parliament Michael Hindley says that Kashmir is an international problem and should be settled through negotiations.
  • April 18: British Prime Minister John Major says that he supports an approach that would resolve the Kashmir dispute peacefully through dialogue and negotiations President and founder of Christians and Muslims for Peace, Prof. William W. Baker says that Kashmir once said to be a heaven on earth, has been transformed into a hell.
  • April 19: Kashmiri newspaper editors announce to defy government ban on publishing statements issued by Muslim liberation fighters groups.
  • April 25: US Congressman Dan Burton, a Republican from Indiana, asks the US Administration to forcefully condemn India's tyrannical behaviour in occupied Kashmir and to demand the immediate release of political prisoners.
  • May 1: US Under Secretary of State Phillip Wilcox while releasing the State Department's annual report on "Patterns of global terrorism for 1995 says, "there is no substantial evidence that Pakistan is supporting terrorism in Kashmir."
  • May 2: Bruce Fein, a lawyer and freelance writer specializing in legal issues, in his latest analysis appearing in the Washington Times observes that the self-determination is a time-honored concept and a plebiscite to determine Kashmir's national destiny will be no insult to India's dignity and global stature.
  • May 8: The faith that the British Government seems to be putting into the effectiveness of the Indian National Human Rights Commission to investigate and prevent human rights violations in J&K is challenged by the Chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group Lord Eric Avebury, who in a letter to the Minister of State, Jeremy Hanley has criticized the government for ignoring the facts.
  • May 11: Indian forces blast two mines on Srinagar-Charar Sharif road in an attempt to assassinate the APHC leaders on their way to attend the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Dargah of Sheikh Nooruddin Wali.
  • May 13: In occupied Kashmir, more than 1.5 million government employees who are assigned election duty by the Indian authorities, go on 18-day strike at the call of JK Government Employees Confederation to boycott the electoral process.
  • May 17: The Human Rights Watch says human rights conditions in occupied Kashmir have deteriorated as a result of a new policy of the Indian government to arm and protect irregular militias to carry out its counter-insurgency operations.
  • May 18: Chinese parliamentary delegation leader Sun Fulling, who is vice chairman of the National Committee of CPPCC, reiterates his government's principled stand on Kashmir saying that the Kashmir issue be resolved through negotiations according to the UN resolutions.
  • May 23: India's newly-installed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee says Article-370 of the Indian constitution, which guarantees special status to Jammu and Kashmir, is a secondary issue and his government will give priority to crushing what he described as uprising in the Held State Indian soldiers summon local leaders to demand that they turn out for parliamentary elections or face the army's wrath.
  • May 24: The US media almost unanimously reports that the elections held in Indian-occupied Kashmir are "a sham, fake and a parody of democracy" with heavily armed Indian troops forcing people out of their houses to go and vote. The British media blasts the Indian-sponsored elections for the Lok Sabha seats in held Kashmir saying the people were forced out from their homes by Indian military forces to go to the polling stations.
  • June 4: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat hopes that the Kashmir conflict will be resolved in the light of the UN resolutions.
  • June 8: APHC rejects Indian government's offer of more autonomy to J&K saying the problem cannot be resolved by remaining in Indian Union A powerful bomb hidden in a car explodes outside the residence of APHC leader Abdul Ghani Lone in Rawalpora Colony in southern Kashmir causing extensive damage setting ablaze dozens of shops and smashing window panes of more than two dozen houses in the posh locality.
  • June 17: Member of the British Parliament Garry Waller urges new Indian government to look into the simmering Kashmir as hundreds have been killed in the valley and many women are raped every day.
  • June 30: Fire breaks out in 600-years-old Jamia Masjid, triggering protest demonstrations.
  • July 6: Indian Prime Minister meets politicians as general strike to protest the premier's visit to Kashmir grips the troubled Valley.
  • July 7: One-day visit to Indian-held Kashmir by the Indian Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda comes in for adverse comments by the APHC chief Mirwaiz Omar Farooq that Indian Prime Minister should first realize the bitter reality that Kashmir is a longstanding dispute and shall have to be solved after negotiations take place between India, Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
  • July 12: The United States welcomes the proposed resumption of talks between Pakistan and India and hopes that the process would lead to early resolution of their long outstanding disputes. Lok Sabha extends Presidential Rule in Indian-held Kashmir for six months approving a bill on the same.
  • July 13: US President Bill Clinton urges Pakistan and India to resolve the Kashmir dispute through direct negotiations and offers to facilitate such talks should both parties desire US help.
  • July 17: Police shoots dead JKLF leader Hilal Beig, 34, in occupied Kashmir.
  • July 19: Assistant Secretary of State Robin Raphel refutes that the United States is trying to stage a Camp David in South Asia through what is being described as 'Cohan Plan" envisaging an accord between Pakistan and India brokered by the United States.
  • July 22: Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Najmuddin Sheikh rules out Camp David-like solution to the Kashmir issue as nonsense and even the Americans have denied any such initiative.
  • July 23: The Kashmir issue is discussed at a meeting between a group of MPs and Robin Cook the shadow foreign secretary, organized by the Labour Member of Parliament, Max Madden.
  • August 3: Shedding its reluctance to allow US Senator Hank Brown to visit occupied Kashmir the Indian government announces its decision to treat what the Senator had intended to be a private visit as an official one, with External Affairs Minister, I.K. Gujral extending him the courtesies required of him under protocol. Brown is not too popular with the Indian government because of the role he had played in facilitating the one-time waiver of the Pressler Amendment enabling US administration to give $358 million military assistance to Pakistan.
  • August 4: US Ambassador to New Delhi Frank Wisner says his country believes that there cannot be a lasting settlement of Kashmir problem unless Pakistan and India come to the negotiating table and until the Kashmiris are allowed to express their views.
  • August 6: Deputy Prime Minister of Turkmenistan Boris Shikhmuradov expresses concern over human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, and stresses the need for resolving Kashmir issue through talks to ensure peace in the region.
  • August 7: Republican Senator Hank Brown during his second visit to Pakistan in four months says "it is really heart-breaking to see what is happening in occupied Kashmir."
  • August 9: The announcement made by the Indian Election Commission about polls schedule of Kashmir Assembly is dismissed by APHC as yet another gimmick to mislead the world opinion and announces to boycott the elections.
  • August 11: US Senator Hank Brown says that Pakistan can play a very positive role for peace and stability in the region adding that the United States supports a political solution of Kashmir problem which will greatly benefit all the people living in the entire region.
  • August 13: Pakistan Prime Minister says at the inaugural session of the OIC Contact Group on Kashmir, "Not far from here would you hear the thunder of the Indian guns as they violate the Line of Control, despite the presence of the UN Military Observers, targeting innocent civilians in Azad Kashmir".
  • August 16: Pakistan Envoy to UN Sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities Munir Akram regrets the world silence over killing of 50,000 Kashmiris in Indian-held Kashmir at the hands of over 600,000 troops. Through its intense last minute efforts, Pakistan is able to thwart an attempt to delete the issues of Kashmir and Palestine from the list of the matters pending before the Security Council. As a consequence of Pakistan's timely intervention on the matter, the Kashmir issue is given a year's reprieve at the end of which term (ending September 15, 1997) it will be automatically dropped from the Security Council's agenda.
  • August 20: The UN officials say that deletion of Kashmir dispute from the UN Security Council's agenda items can result in withdrawal of the UN military observers mission (UNMOGIP) from the Line of Control. Besides, it can also be deleted from the agenda items in the General Assembly if the Council's decision of July 30 is not reversed.
  • August 25: Indian Home Minister Indrajit Gupta says the government's new plan for more autonomy for J&K includes separation of Ladakh region from Muslim majority Valley area to contain the freedom movement and place the Budh majority Ladakh under Center's direct rule.
  • August 27: Norwegian Foreign Minister Bjorn Tore Gondal, says that his country is ready to play the role of a mediator for resolving Kashmir conflict between Pakistan and India if the two sides are willing to accept Norway's mediation.
  • August 28: The Security Council working group agrees to recommend the retention of Kashmir and some other issues on the Security Council's agenda but clamps a crippling proviso by subjecting it to annual review and notification.
  • September 14: To make the process of so-called elections to the state assembly successful the Indian troops arrest the whole leadership of the APHC.
  • September 15: Underscoring that the "Kashmir dispute cannot be resolved through fraudulent elections", US Congressman Tim Johnson asks President Bill Clinton, "to use the US influence to promote lasting solution to the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the will of the Kashmiri people."
  • September 16: There is a widespread coercion of voters by the Indian forces during the second phase of the state assembly elections in J&K. A BBC correspondent reports airing at some places loud-speaker messages from mosques by the Indian army asking people to come out while at other places people complain they were forced to cast vote. Newsmen see buses and trucks commanded by paramilitary forces to bring out reluctant voters.
  • September 22: Reiterating that US position on Kashmir issue remains unchanged, US ambassador to Pakistan Thomas W. Simons says the Kashmir question must be resolved peacefully through bilateral negotiations between Pakistan and India taking into account the aspirations of Kashmiris.
  • October 6: APHC representatives from Indian-held Kashmir and Azad Jammu and Kashmir at a joint meeting in Washington discuss various aspects of the freedom movement and the role of the world community in promoting a just and peaceful settlement of the Kashmir imbroglio .They adopt a statement called the Washington Declaration.
  • November 7: Robin Cook expresses concern over the unstable situation in the Indian-held Kashmir saying that after having a five-day visit to the Valley, he is now in a better position to understand the unsatisfactory situation and measures being taken by the Indian forces to suppress the free will of the Kashmiri people.
  • November 14: Twelve US Congressmen write a joint letter to the Indian government expressing concern over the abuse of poll process in Kashmir and the post-election situation prevailing there.
  • December 13: The Amnesty International calls on India to ensure that all political prisoners are tried promptly and fairly and all allegations of torture and deaths in custody are investigated and justice brought to those responsible The OIC Foreign Ministers Conference in its communiqué issued in Jakarta condemns the continuing massive violations of human rights of the Kashmiri people and calls for the respect of their human rights including the right of self-determination.
 
1997
  • January 13: The Human Rights Watch, Asia, in a 49-page report entitled, “India's Secret Army in Kashmir” - New Patterns of Abuse Emerge in the Conflict, observes that several state-sponsored militias commonly referred to as “renegades” in J&K are serving as India's secret army and they are indulging in widespread human rights abuses including attacks on journalists, human rights activists and medical workers.
  • January 14: British Prime Minister John Major says the Kashmir issue can be settled only when leaders of all the three parties India, Pakistan and Kashmir put heads together and seek permanent and amicable solution of the problem.
  • January 25: Chairman of the British Parliamentary Human Rights Group Lord Avebury tells newsmen at House of Lords Committee room that Prime Minister John Major's speech on his recent visit to Pakistan that “there are three essential parties to the Kashmir issue the government of India, the government of Pakistan, and the people who live in Kashmir themselves”, is an advance on some of the previous government statements.
  • January 26: A string of explosions including the one went off barely 100 metres from fortified Bakhshi stadium after ceremonial parade, rocks parts of occupied Kashmir after India's Republic Day celebrations in occupied Kashmir.
  • February 17: Indian Prime Minister Deve Gowda who had earlier queered the pitch saying India is willing to discuss everything with Pakistan “except Kashmir”, formally urges Pakistan for an “early resumption of long-stalled Indo-Pak dialogue at appropriate level”.
  • February 18: The United States urges Pakistan and India to end their long-standing row over Kashmir but says Washington does not seek a mediatory role in the conflict.
  • February 20: US Ambassador Frank G. Wisner addressing Press conference in Srinagar reiterates the American stand for using non-violent and peaceful means for resolving the Kashmir issue saying, “any settlement so sought can flow a meaningful dialogue between India and Pakistan which should take into consideration the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.”
  • March 2: The state newspapers suspend their publications as a mark of protest against the repressive actions of the occupation forces and in response to the call given by a Mujahideen outfit in this regard, no newspaper appears throughout the Valley from Srinagar.
  • March 6: The Clinton administration reiterates its position that Kashmir is a disputed territory whose status has yet to be determined. “We continue to believe that the status of Kashmir ought to be determined by those affected in the region,” White House spokesman Mike McCurry observes while answering a question at his regular briefing.
  • March 15: India's leading constitutional lawyer and an expert on Kashmir Affairs, Mr. A.G Noorani says that Constitution of India treats the future of Held Kashmir open and provides for its secession without a constitutional amendment.Mr. Noorani's remarks come as a rebuff to Indian politicians clamouring that “Kashmir is an integral part of India” and forcing Kashmiri leaders to accept a solution within the parameters of Indian Constitution.
  • March 18: The Unite States says that Kashmir must be on the agenda of forthcoming Pak-India bilateral talks, though it will prefer talks between the two countries sans 'preconditions'.The papers quote US Ambassador to India Frank Wisner as saying in Gwalior that US prefers talks between two countries without preconditions, but Kashmir must be included in the agenda of bilateral talks.
  • March 23: Eight freedom-fighters and seven others died in stepped-up violence in occupied Kashmir, officials said.
  • March 25: Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League decides to hold a series of demonstrations in various countries against the non-inclusion of Kashmiri Leaders in the forthcoming Foreign Secretary level talks between India and Pakistan Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said he backed the use of United Nations Resolutions to end the Kashmir dispute. Arafat said after a summit of the Organization of the Islamic(OIC) that he fully endorsed resolutions passed by the grouping of Islamic countries in Islamabad which criticized India's human rights record in occupied Kashmir.
  • March 27: Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed took a firm line as he arrived in New Delhi for the first official talks with India in three years, throwing down the gauntlet as he declared Kashmir the 'core issue' on the agenda Shamshad, due to hold talks with his Indian counterpart Salman Haider during a groundbreaking four-day visit, arrived just hours after a street protest had erupted in New Delhi over Pakistan's stance on the disputed Himalayan territory.
  • March 28: Pakistan and India sat down at the negotiating table for the first time in three years with the Kashmir dispute high on the agenda. Armed police ringed the venue where Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed and his Indian counterpart, Salman Haider, began talks at 4 p.m. (3.30 p.m. PST). The two-hour session, the first official talks since 1994 ended in an upbeat mood, with Shamshad Ahmed, who had said earlier Kashmir would be the core issue of the negotiations, saying “The talks were very cordial and very meaningful and very purposeful. We are very hopeful.&rdquo The Indian Prime Minister I. K. Gujral is keeping mum on whether or not a working group would be formed on Kashmir between Pakistan and India to resolve this outstanding core issue. In an interview with BBC's Hindi Service, when Mr. Gujral's attention was drawn towards the confusion about the formation of a working group on Kashmir, he did not respond and left the site by waving his hand.
  • March 31: Pakistan and India ended four days of talks aimed at reducing tension and agreed to meet again in Islamabad. “The two foreign secretaries discussed all outstanding issues of concern to both sides in a frank, cordial and constructive manner,” a joint statement issued after the talks said.
  • April 4: All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), described the special summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) a “milestone” which projected Kashmir issue having a unanimous support of the Muslim Ummah. “This summit was a befitting answer to the Indian propaganda to the contrary,” Syed Yousaf Naseem, Ghulam Muhammad Safi and Mir Masood of APHC told a press conference. Naseem represented the people of Jammu and Kashmir in the recent OIC extraordinary summit in Islamabad, while Safi and Tahir Masood in the 53rd session of the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. Ghulam Mohammad Safi read out a piece from the statement of OIC Secretary General, Laraki, he made before the 53rd session of the UN Commission which sent shock waves to the Indian side.Kashmiri people will reject any bilateral agreement between India and Pakistan on Kashmir issue without the participation of true Kashmiri representatives. This was declared by three leaders of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) of Jammu and Kashmir at a press conference.
  • April 7: Pakistan reiterated its position at the UN Human Rights Commission that the struggle of the Kashmiri people was a genuine freedom movement and it could not be mingled with terrorism. “There is a difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist,” Masood Khan, member of the Pakistan delegation told the 53rd session of the world forum.
  • April 9: The plight of the Kashmiri nation echoed at the United Nations Human Rights Commission as two international non-governmental organizations called upon the world community to salvage innocent people from Indian atrocities. The representatives of Germany based World Society of Victimology (WSV) and Washington-based International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations (IIFSO) reminded the world body to fulfill its responsibility with regard to the precarious situation in the Indian held Kashmir.
  • April 11: Pakistan ably frustrated India's move to create an impression at the UN Human Rights Commission that normalcy had returned to Held Kashmir and said atrocities of Indian security forces were going on in troubled state unabated. “Repression and coercion of the Kashmiris including their leadership continues in Held Kashmir,” said Pakistan's Permanent Representative to UN Commission Ambassador Munir Akram.
  • April 20: Pakistan expressed the hope that new Indian Prime Minister I. K. Gujral would adopt a positive attitude on the Kashmir issue and take some bold initiative to resolve the dispute.
  • Prime Minister's Adviser on Information Syed Mushahid Husain said while talking to newsmen that when Mr. Gujral had visited Pakistan in 1995 and had called on the then opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, he had supported the view that the Kashmir dispute should be resolved “A strong and stable government is in power in Pakistan which wants to settle all with India, specially the Kashmir dispute. “We hope that Mr. Gujral will adopt a positive approach and take some bold initiative in this regard”, Mr. Mushahid said.
  • April 22: The people in the Held Jammu & Kashmir have reacted cautiously over the change of government in India. Though, nobody seems to be against Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral, the new Prime Minister of India, yet almost everybody predicted no change in India's policy towards Kashmir because of Gujral government's over-dependence on the Congress Party The Kashmir Times, leading English daily of the occupied territory in its editorial termed Gujral as the best choice though he lacks charisma and a sound political base. The paper stated that Gujral's understanding of the Kashmir problem with which he has been associated will help him form more realistic Kashmir policy that could satisfy the political aspirations of the people of the held territory The powerful US Senate Foreign Relations Committee headed by Senator Jesse Helms will demand withdrawal of UN observers posted in Kashmir and Palestine within two years, as part of a five-year deal with the United Nations to release arrears payable by the United States. “Abolition of the UN peacekeeping force in Kashmir which involved an expenditure of about six million dollars a year, is contained in a draft of 25 benchmark proposals for UN reforms, prepared by the committee,” congressional sources said.
  • April 24: Pakistan has resented the US Foreign Relations Committee Chairman's move to seek termination of peacekeeping role along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir by the United Nations Military Observers Group (UNMOGIP), and protested against the move to Washington and the UN.
  • April 25: Indian troops in their stepped up repression raided the residence of senior Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani and arrested his driver in Srinagar, capital of the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
  • April 26: Ten people were killed in violence in the Kashmir Valley. As a strike called by APHC to denounce atrocities by Indian troops crippled the troubled state.
  • April 28: Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan asked India to acknowledge the existence of a bilateral dispute over Kashmir, saying such a move is key to improving relations. Mr. Khan was quoted by the Times of India as dismissing suggestions in the Indian media that the Kashmir issue could be put on hold in order to allow the arch-foes to resolve less intractable disputes first.
  • May 3: The influential Washington Post urged Indian Prime Minister I. K. Gujral to ease up in Kashmir as it “could help India open up its economy and its political system.” In an editorial on prospects of Pakistan-India talks, the paper said a little ripple of promise of better relations between India and Pakistan has spread across South Asia In occupied Kashmir, the atrocities of Indian troops claimed 256 lives in the month of May,which included 62 custodial killings, said an All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC)statement.
  • May 6: The European Parliament expressed its deep concern over the human rights situation in Kashmir, urging Pakistan and India to continue efforts for a negotiated settlement of the issue. Anita Pollack, head of a four-member European Parliament delegation visiting Pakistan, told journalists that the Parliament is “deeply concerned about human rights situation which has occurred over a long period of time in Kashmir.
  • May 10: Attending the ministers meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in the Maldives, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan said that the resolution of the Kashmir issue alone would energize South Asia.
  • May 12: In their 90-minute luncheon meeting, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Inder Kumar Gujral agreed to set up joint working groups for resolution of all issues, outstanding between the two countries during the past 50 years, establish a hot-line between them and release hundreds of each other's civilian prisoners, and hold the next round of secretary level talks by the end of this month.
  • May 14: Addressing the extraordinary summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO),Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan favors a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.
  • May 15: The leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Yasin Malik was arrested in the Indian capital New Delhi shortly after he agreed to break a protest hunger strike. He was protesting against Human Rights abuses in the Indian occupied Kashmir.
  • May 23: The secretary general of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, in a meeting with Pakistan foreign minister Gohar Ayub Khan assured him that he was willing to use his good offices to find a solution of the festering 50-year-old Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India.
  • June 6: The new British High Commissioner in Pakistan Mr. David Dain has said the government and the people of Great Britain wish India and Pakistan to settle all their conflicts including that of Kashmir through peaceful means. He however, underlined the need of inclusion of Kashmir in Indo-Pakistan parleys with a view to making them conclusive by arriving at a lasting solution of Kashmir problem.
  • June 8: First Secretary US Embassy, Islamabad, Michael G. Anderson, said that US firmly believed that Kashmir was a disputed territory and both India and Pakistan must sit together to resolve this problem.
  • June 16: Lord Avebury, Chairman of Human Rights Group, House of Lords, requested the Indian Prime Minister to give free access to the human rights organizations in occupied Kashmir.In a two-page letter addressed to Inder Kumar Gujral, he stated if the public in Jammu and Kashmir and the wider international community was to have confidence in Indian government's determination to put an end to human rights violation, it was essential that the NGOs and working groups of the UN Human Rights Commission be given free access and cooperation.
  • June 22: Pakistan and India reached an agreement to form a mechanism for sustained dialogue on issues between the two countries. Both the countries have identified eight issue areas,including the problem of Jammu and Kashmir, which will serve as agenda for future talks. A joint statement released at the conclusion of the second round of foreign secretary level talks said the two sides also agreed to set up working groups to deal with all outstanding< issues at appropriate levels. The problems of peace and security and Jammu and Kashmir would, however, be taken up at the secretary level.
  • June 25: India rejected Pakistan's interpretation that it has accepted Jammu and Kashmir as a “disputed territory” after the second round of Secretary-level talks just concluded in Islamabad.
  • June 28: The outgoing US Ambassador to India, Mr. Frank G. Wisner, said India and Pakistan should address all issues including Kashmir simultaneously. “There is no back-burner or front burner. All the gas points on the stove are sort of on parallel,” he told Business daily.
  • June 29: “All the member states of the OIC have been doing their best both from their platform and at the United Nations to see the Kashmir issue resolved amicably”, The High Commissioner of Republic of Nigeria in Pakistan, Mr. A.R. Younasa, said, while addressing the Kashmiri refugees at one of their camps on the outskirts of the AJK capital.
  • July 10: The Government in Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian government should act now to ensure that political activists are not detained for participating in legitimate protests and that journalists are not beaten up and harassed for pursuing their professional duties, the London-based Amnesty International (AI) said.
  • July 15: A visiting team of women rights activists to Held Kashmir said the women and children are the worst sufferers in the prevailing situation in held Kashmir. Seeking withdrawal of troops from civilian areas and all educational institutions, the activists said the permission to Amnesty International would help in many ways in easing the pressure on civilian population. They said “Kashmir is being treated as a colony” and it clearly seems “there is genocide in Kashmir”.
  • July 20: There has been a tremendous support of the Saudi masses for the principled stand of Pakistan on the long-standing issue of Kashmir. This was stated by the head of a six-member Saudi delegation currently on a seven-day visit to Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Saad Saeedi Alhameedi, Deputy Secretary General of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY).
  • August 10: The Chairperson of the Indian Commission for Women, Dr. Mohini Giri, said Kashmiri women were being treated in the most inhuman way all over Kashmir.
  • August 14: Raising of Pakistan's flag and pro-independence demonstration by the people in occupied Kashmir marked Pakistan Independence Day in a show of defiance against Indian rule.
  • August 15: “The United Nations should immediately hold a plebiscite to ascertain the right of self-determination of the Kashmiris in occupied Kashmir and New Delhi should withdraw its forces from the held Valley.” This resolution was unanimously adopted by the Special Committee of Pakistan's National Assembly on Kashmir, which met with Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar Khan in the chair.
  • August 23: The Indian Army refused to comply with any of the directives of the puppet regime of Farooq Abdullah in held Kashmir. The puppet chief minister, in a letter to the Indian Prime Minister, I.K. Gujral, protested the army's attitude stressing that military operations to quell the Mujahideen movement should take place with his consent.
  • August 25: In the inaugural session of the international seminar on Kashmir held on August 24 to 25, Pakistan, assured Kashmiris her full support till they achieve their right of plebiscite under the United Nations supervision as guaranteed by the Security Council resolutions.
  • August 30: American journalist Martin Sugarman observed that the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir are still alive but the terms of resolutions should be redefined and enlarged to reflect the changed situation in Kashmir and the rest of the world. In an interview with PPI he said it should be made obligatory on India to withdraw all its occupation forces from held Kashmir, as a free and fair plebiscite in the presence of such a large number of troops would remain a distant dream.
  • November 4: If India doesn't honor its commitments on Kashmir made in the second round of talks, Pakistan will not attend the third round in New Delhi, official sources said “Recently indications from the Indian side point to the conclusion that the Indian government may be having second thoughts on the agreed mechanism, particularly in regard to the issues of Peace and Security and Jammu and Kashmir,” said an official. Indian agreement to discuss the issue of Jammu and Kashmir would not represent any sign of flexibility if any change in the constitutional position of the State is ruled out, Lord Avebury, Chairman British Parliamentary Human Rights Group and member of the House of Lords has said. Addressing a gathering of about 20,000 delegates at the annual conference of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in Chicago Lord Avebury proposed a 7 point minimal agenda for the people of Kashmir and the governments of India and Pakistan which he believed would be practicable to send in motion a process for resolution of the Kashmir issue.
  • September 09: The visiting four-member Swiss parliamentary delegation promised to raise the issue of Kashmir in Swiss parliament. The assurance came as the visiting delegation of the Swiss parliamentarians led by the Deputy Speaker of the Swiss parliament held a meeting with Convener of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Syed Yousaf Naseem.
  • September 17: On the second day of third round of Foreign Secretary-level talks, the two sides continued the diplomatic efforts to “operationalise mechanism” for future 'structured dialogue' on all outstanding issues. However, the Indian side is still adamant on not forming a working group on issue of Kashmir . The two sides held two informal sessions in which different matters relating to the formation of mechanism of future talks came under discussion. There seems to be no forward movement on the issue of formation of working group on Kashmir as the Indian side is insisting on its interpretation of the joint statement issued at the conclusion of second round of talks. Though the Indians have agreed that the Kashmir issue could be dealt with at Foreign Secretaries level, however, they are opposed to any kind of structured dialogue on Kashmir Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad raised the issue of violation of Line of Control (LoC) by Indian Army in the months of August and September when the civilian population of Azad Kashmir was heavily bombed. Shamshad Ahmad held a long meeting with Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral in which issues relating to Kashmir problem were discussed in detail.
  • September 18: Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad Khan said that the third round of bilateral talks between Pakistan and India has remained inconclusive because the Indian side has retired from the agreement set out in Islamabad's joint statement of June 23 this year. Talking to newsmen on his arrival from the Indian capital after three days visit, he said Pakistan could not compromise on its principled position with regard to the Jammu and Kashmir issue which lies at the heart of all problems.
  • September 21: Democrat Senator Tim Johnson from South Dakota welcomed President Clinton's meetings with Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India and urged the US to play more assertive role in resolving the Kashmir dispute. He also supported right of self-determination of Kashmiri people as the basis of any solution to the problem Indian troops shot dead 22 Kashmiris struggling for freedom in occupied Kashmir. Sixteen of them were killed in at Beerwah woods in central Kashmir.
  • September 22: Prime Minister of Pakistan in a keynote address to the UN General Assembly said that Pakistan has taken an important initiative to bring about peace in South Asia for which India's cooperation is essential, and the key to which is solution of the longstanding Kashmir dispute. This, he said, can be done only by giving the right of self-determination to the Kashmiris which is their right under the United Nations resolutions.
  • September 23: In their second meeting this year, at St Regis Hotel Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan failed to find a way out of the impasse on the Kashmir issue that mars ties between the two countries. Pakistan Prime Minister told Gujral that it would be extremely difficult to resolve other outstanding matters unless there is a discernible movement forward on the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
  • September 24: The Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan would welcome third party mediation on Kashmir dispute and it was with this intention that he had asked the US President to pay more attention to the situation in South Asia. The Prime Minister said this while addressing a press conference at Hotel Roosevelt. He said American involvement in issues and disputes in South Asia would help break deadlocks just as they had done in the case of Middle East peace process. It will be welcomed by the countries of the region, he added.
  • September 27: India has directed the puppet regime in occupied Kashmir to extend the life of two special laws, giving free hand and impunity to the armed forces, for another one year. The laws the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Disturbed Areas Act were promulgated way back in 1990 and were expiring in early October.
  • September 30: The leader of the visiting French Parliamentary delegation Senator Andre Egu has voiced unequivocal support to the right of self-determination of the people of Kashmir He said, “They should be given right to self-determination through application of United Nations resolutions”.
  • October 2: The United States Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright expresses “strong hope that long-standing dispute between India and Pakistan should be resolved soon” and reiterates American offer to “help in resolving the dispute at the request of both parties.”
  • October 3: US House of Representatives tables a resolution seeking to “impartially ascertain” the future status of Jammu and Kashmir Congressman Dana Rohrabacher moves the resolution on September 30, which is referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee headed by Republican Benjamin Gilman.
  • October 8: Prime Minister of Pakistan calls for redemption of the pledge made by the international community through several UN resolutions for exercise of the right of self-determination by people of Kashmir.
  • October 9: In his meetings with Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, offers help in finding a just solution of Jammu and Kashmir recognising the Kashmir dispute, as the main stumbling block in Pakistan-India relations and in the interest of regional and global peace and security New Delhi warns Britain not to try to mediate in Kashmir dispute. A government spokesman said India has “no use for the offer of good offices and or mediation by third party” over Kashmir dispute. The warning follows British offers to try to help solve the ongoing dispute.
  • October 11: Pakistan raises the issue of right to self-determination of the people of occupied Kashmir in the United Nations during deliberations of the De-colonisation and Political Committee. Chairman Foreign Relations Committee of the National Assembly, Mian Abdul Waheed, expresses concern over the failure of the international community in realizing the inalienable right of the Kashmiri people who are under Indian occupation.
  • October 12: The desecration of historic Jamia Mosque in Sringar by the Indian troops sparks furious anti-India demonstration. The troops after besieging the mosque, barged into it with boots-on and continued extensive search for three hours.
  • October 18: Indian government decides to pull out some of its army units and the Border Security Force (BSF) from Srinagar, Baramulla, Islamabad and other towns in South and North Kashmir, reports an Indian daily, 'The Tribune'. The move coincides with the extension of the two draconian laws, the Disturbed Area Act and Armed Forces Special Powers Act by the so-called Legislative Assembly in Indian Occupied Kashmir. These acts were originally promulgated in 1990.
  • October 19: Strike cripples life in occupied Kashmir on the occasion of the visit of Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral to Srinagar, where no business activity took place and the traffic remained off the road.
  • October 23: “We will lend our assistance when and where we can, at the request of the parties involved,” US Assistant Secretary of State Kari Inderfurth tells House International Sub-committee on the Near East and South Asia.
  • October 24: The people show their commitment to Kashmir freedom struggle by forming a 625-km-long human chain along the Line of Control (LoC) up to Wahga border near Lahore.
  • November 19: The US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright terms Kashmir to be an issue of her personal interest because of her father, a member of the first UN Observers team on Kashmir. “Personally I want the conflict to end”, she said while talking to a group of Parliamentarians.
  • December 10: The United Nations expresses deep concern over the deteriorating human rights situation in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Talking to a two-member All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) delegation at the UN mission the Acting Resident Coordinator in India Mr.B.S. Aguirea says the World Body is closely monitoring the situation in the occupied Kashmir and is aware about its duties.
  • December 15: Labour MP Muhammad Sarwar calls upon the United States and Britain to play an active role in resolving the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.
  • December 18: In occupied Kashmir, masses strongly denounce the Indian military forces and the puppet administration for starting the fire, which burnt the Shrine of Shah-e-Hamadan According to voice of America, when a Tehsildar reached the site, the agitated people besieged him and blamed that the incident occurred owing to the negligence of the occupation authorities and its fire service. The BBC said, the Dargah could have been saved if the administration had taken timely steps. The radio said, the local people say the administration did not take appropriate steps to extinguish the fire, according to Radio Tehran, people rush to extinguish the fires but troops opened fire on them.
  • December 21: Freedom House, a New York-based organisation, describes Indian occupied Kashmir, as being a 'worst of the worst' case scenario in repression. In its annual report the Freedom House, established by Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Wilkie in 1941, for the promotion of liberty and democracy, characterised the Kashmiri territory under Indian occupation as an area where basic human and political rights are denied to the people.
  • 1998
  • January 3: The creation of an Indian-puppet regime in occupied Kashmir "did not translate into improved human rights conditions", says the Human Rights Watch report, issued in
  • December 1997. The report says a fact-finding mission “documented a large number of extra-judicial executions that had occurred in the year since Farooq Abdullah's government took power.” The report cites examples of killings by the special operations group (SOG and cites the collaboration of Indian-sponsored terrorist units in such operations.
  • January 5: Kashmiris throughout the world and across the Line of Control, as well as in Pakistan hold rallies to observe the Self-Determination Day for drawing global attention towards resolution of the lingering problem.
  • January 6: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, in a meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the APHC in Srinagar, announces to boycott the forthcoming elections of Indian Lok Sabha.
  • January 8: The Indian troops desecrate the shrine of Baba Daud Khaki at Batmaloo in Srinagar and ransack sacred relics.
  • January 11: India to move 250 additional companies of paramilitary forces into held Kashmir in the name of upcoming election duties.
  • January 24: An attack on a military camp in Budgam, results in killing of seven Indian troops and injury to several others. Prime Minister of Pakistan holds detailed discussions with King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz in Makkah and briefs the King on Indo-Pakistan relations as well as the situation in Occupied Kashmir. The Saudi King expresses support for Pakistan and the people of Kashmir.
  • January 26: The people of Kashmir observe Indian Republic Day as Black Day. Twenty-three Hindus are massacred and their bodies mutilated in a village in the Indian held Kashmir where they are said to be living with the Muslims. The killings take place shortly before midnight at Vandhama on the eve of India's Republic Day.
  • January 28: Indian Prime Ministers Inder Kumar Gujral blames Pakistan for backing people binvolved in the killing 23 Hindus in the disputed state of Kashmir. The US government condemns the killing of Hindus in occupied Kashmir The US State Department spokesman in his statement says "On the night of January 25, 23 members of the Kashmiri Pandit Community were murdered in their homes by unidentified terrorists in a village near the state capital of Srinagar. According to the reports citing the lone survivor a 12-year-old boy, a group of armed men entered his family's house asking for tea then opened fire on his family and their neighbours. Among the dead are all Hindus 10 women, nine men and four children. ". Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral visits the site of the latest incident in the troubled state.
  • January 29: The Foreign Office in Islamabad condemns Indian Premier Inder Kumar Gujral's statement blaming Pakistan for backing Mujahideen accused of killing 23 Hindus in Kashmir.
  • February 1: Prime Minister of Pakistan briefs the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan about his efforts to try to defuse tension in South Asia and his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Gujral. He asks Kofi Annan to ensure the implementation of UN resolutions on Kashmir. The US State Department confirms widespread killings, abductions and abuses by Indian authorities in Jammu and Kashmir, saying government forces, numbering between 350,000 and 400,000 continue to commit serious violations of humanitarian law in the disputed state.
  • February 3: Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral cancels his scheduled visit of Kishtwar town of the held Kashmir in view of strong resistance by the Kashmiri people and the severe tension in Kishtwar and adjoining areas where nine innocent Muslim protesters are killed by the Indian occupation troops on the holy day of Eid.
  • February 4: More than 6,000 Kashmiris, shouting slogans for freedom and condemning Indian batrocities in the held Valley turn on to the streets of Pampore, 10 kilometres south of Srinagar.
  • February 8: The executive committee of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference with Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in the chair expresses grave concern over the formation of secret force "Kashaf commandos" by the Indian forces to sabotage the Kashmiris' liberation movement. The new force sets forth a nefarious agenda of creating dissension among the rank and files of the Kashmiri Mujahideen and subverting communal peace by killing Hindu minority in Muslim majority areas and then putting blame on the Mujahideen.
  • February 25: Sixteen people, including seven Indian soldiers, are gunned down in renewed fierce street clashes in various parts of the occupied Kashmir. Two Indian soldiers and three Kashmiri freedom fighters are killed during a street armed battle at Nagia Heera Mandi in Poonch district.
  • February 26: India either arrests the top ranking leadership of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference or confines them to their houses three days ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in the held Valley.
  • February 28: Voters stay off the snow-covered streets while police confronts protesters who are calling for boycott of Indian Lok Sabha election in the occupied Kashmir. Three persons including two children are killed and 12 others abducted in poll-related violence Witnesses say shops, businesses, offices and schools remain closed and the streets give deserted look for the second consecutive day Kashmiris living in Britain hold a demonstration outside the Indian High Commission against the holding of farcical elections in Kashmir for Indian's six parliamentary seats.
  •  
    1998
    • March 5: The government and the people of Iran want that the people of Kashmir should begiven their legitimate right for self-determination, write Iranian newspapers, "Resalat"and "Jamhouri-Islami" in two identical reports
    • According to the papers, February 5 is declared the day of solidarity with the people of Kashmir in Iran. This day provides an opportunity to focus on right to self-determination, which is promised to both India and Pakistan, the dailies pointed out.
    • March 8: Election Commission officials suspend counting in the summer capital of Srinagar for more than two hours after Hindu nationalists' clash with the ruling National Conference workers at the counting center.
    • March 12: Corps Commander of the Indian Occupation forces in held Kashmir, Lt Gen Krishan Pal, says there is no military solution to the Kashmir issue.
    • In an interview with the Indian Express Gen Pal, confesses the Indian army is facing various problems in the held Kashmir.
    • March 19: The Jammu and Kashmir State Governor, KV Krishna Rao, finally confesses that Indian forces are responsible for massacre of Kashmiri people on several occasions and that he feels deeply for these human rights violations.
    • March 20: The chairman of Pakistan's National Assembly Kashmir Committee, Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, appeals to the UN Human Rights Commission to constitute a committee for probing human rights abuses in occupied Kashmir.
    • March 25: British MP, Mr. Mohammad Sarwar, criticises the West for adopting double standards in the implementation of United Nations resolutions and urges the Western countries to show the same enthusiasm in getting implemented the UN resolution on Kashmir as they show in the case of Iraq.
    • April 7: The Canadian Foreign Minister, Lloyd Axworthy, reiterates his country's support for negotiated settlement of the Kashmir dispute and expresses concern about regional security in South Asia, including Kashmir.
    • April 10: US Ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, on the eve of his departure for South Asia as President Clinton's special envoy says, the United States would urge Pakistan and India to "go the extra mile" and hold a dialogue on Kashmir and other issues so as to halt the nuclear missile race in the region.
    • April 13: The Director of the French Institute of Higher Studies for Defence Affairs, General Janvier, said that France supports a peaceful resolution of the disputes between India and Pakistan through bilateral talks and in accordance with the UN resolutions.
    • April 14: An international seminar on Involuntary or Enforced Disappearances highlights the grave human rights situation in Indian held Kashmir where 10,000 people have disappeared in an indigenous uprising and the families of the missing people continue to live in anguish.
    • It is terrible predicament for a family to lose a member and not know where he or she is and in held Kashmir where acts of repression go unabated people continue to disappear, says Gerald Kaufmann, a British MP.
    • April 15: The OIC Contact Group adopts a memorandum, condemning the inhuman atrocities in Held Jammu and Kashmir, rejecting the farcical elections and calling for a settlement of the dispute in accordance with the United Nations resolutions.
    • The Organisation of Islamic Conference adopts the memorandum as a human rights document at the 4th session of the US Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
    • The European Union condemns the human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, urging New Delhi to allow international and non-governmental organisations into the disputed territory. "We are concerned about the continuing violations of human rights (in Occupied Kashmir) and EU condemns all human rights abuses and acts of violence, says, Audery Glover, head of the delegation of the United Kingdom on behalf of the European Union.
    • The EU, in its statement at the 54th session of the Commission on Human Rights, calls for allowing access to international organisations as well as NGOs into Kashmir.
    • April 16: The US Army Chief, Gen. Dennis J Reimer, arrives in Indian occupied Kashmir to talk with military officials about tensions between India and Pakistan.
    • April 21: The International Peace Bureau (IPB) appeals to the UN Commission on Human Rights to urgently address the human rights violations of Kashmiri children who are passing through tragic times at the hands of Indian occupation forces. An IPB representative condemns the torture, arbitrary arrest and detention of children as young as 10-year-old, and molestation and rape of girls as young as 9-year-old by the Indian forces in a statement at the 54th session of the commission.
    • April 22: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government appoints former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Chief Girsh Saxena as Governor of held Jammu and Kashmir. Meanwhile, the human rights activists and intellectuals resent the appointment demanding that a senior political person having close affinity with the State be nominated as Governor to strike a chord with the alienated people.
    • Puppet Chief Minister of Indian-held Kashmir, Dr. Farooq Abdullah calls for holding talks with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue.
    • April 23: Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif says a meaningful dialogue between India and Pakistan must focus on Kashmir, which is the cause of tension and conflict between the two countries.
    • Speaking at a dinner hosted in his honour by European Commission President Jacques Santer, the premier says his initiative to resume dialogue with India will be helpful for resolving all issues.
    • He says Pakistan believes that international concern, especially of the EU member countries, would help persuade India to respect the basic human rights of the Kashmir.
    • April 25: The first working session of the SAARC Information Ministers' conference turns ugly as Pakistan and India's information ministers take on each other on the issue of Kashmir.
    • May 11: India tests three nuclear devices at the Pokhran underground testing site. The nuclear tests carried out at 3:45 pm on May 11th were claimed by the Indian government to be a simultaneous detonation of three different devices - a fission device with a yield of about 12 kilotons (KT), a thermonuclear device with a yield of about 43 KT, and a sub-kiloton device. The Clinton administration, which also condemned India's action, said it was caught off guard. "The United States is deeply disappointed by the decision of the government of India to conduct three nuclear tests," said presidential spokesman Mike McCurry.
    • May 13: India's two more nuclear tests at 12:21 pm were also detonated simultaneously with reported yields in the range of 0.2 to 0.6 KT. However, there is some controversy about these claims. Based on seismic data, U.S. government sources and independent experts estimated the yield of the so-called thermonuclear test in the range of 12-25 kilotons, as opposed to the 43-60 kiloton yield claimed by India. This lower yield raised skepticism about India's claims to have detonated a thermonuclear device.
    • May 28: Pakistan explode five underground nuclear devices in response to India's nuclear tests two weeks ago.
    • The move sparks worldwide fears of a nuclear conflict in one of the world's most volatile regions. Pakistani officials said the devices were detonated underground at 1030GMT in the Baluchistan region near the border with Afghanistan. Shortly afterwards, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addressed the nation on television and said the five tests by India had made the action "inevitable".
    • June 2: Japan's foreign minister offers to host an international conference involving India and Pakistan in an attempt to resolve their dispute over Kashmir. United States believes the Kashmir issue is to be resolved peacefully and feels the United Nations must take initiative in this regard. US Defence Secretary William Cohen says US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright convenes a meeting next week of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to discuss the prevailing situation following the nuclear tests carried out by India and Pakistan, which pose threat not only to South Asia but beyond that region. Kashmir issue takes the centre-stage at the White House and in Geneva where the foreign. ministers of the big-five UN Security Council members meet to discuss the South Asian nuclear crisis. White House Spokesman Mike McCurry says we wouldn't be doing it if don't believe that there is at least some chance that both Pakistan and India would be receptive to that type of approach.
    • June 3: Russian Foreign Minister Yevgency Primakov, expresses concern over the nuclear tests in India and Pakistan and puts forth a three point proposal, which includes a possible big power intervention in settling the Kashmir issue.
    • June 4: Secretary Madeleine Albright says her country is re-examining the underlying political problems between India and Pakistan 'including Kashmir'. US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says in Washington "the five major powers of the world will discuss a primary irritant in Pak-India relations Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim region." Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee announces to resume talks with Pakistan on all issues, including the core issue of Kashmir, but refuses any third party mediation.
    • June 5: The ministers of United States, China, Russia, Britian and France in a joint communiqué after their meeting in Geneva pledge that they will actively encourage India and Pakistan to find mutually acceptable solutions, through direct dialogue, that addresses the root causes of the tension, including Kashmir, and to try to build confidence rather than seek confrontation.
    • June 6: The UN Security Council asks both countries to show maximum restraint, and calls for bilateral talks to resolve the disputes on regional security, including Kashmir issue.
    • June 8: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in his address to the parliament, appeals to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to resume bilateral talks on all issues, including the Kashmir dispute.
    • June 11: A resolution will soon be moved in the US Senate calling for UN mediation in Kashmir through a Security Council resolution, leading Democratic senator Tom Harkin says in Washington.
    • June 13: It is Britain's responsibility to resolve the Kashmir issue because it is the United Kingdom that left the issue dangling in violation of its own commitment when it split the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, says George Galloway, senior vice chairman, Foreign Relations Committee of the British House of Commons.
    • June 17: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, in an interview to the Washington Post says that his government is ready to settle the Kashmir dispute with Pakistan under the 1972 Simla agreement.
    • June 19: The Clinton administration strongly defends its decision to internationalise the Kashmir issue, asserting that it is a problem that can no longer "be ignored". Karl Inderfurth, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, says we are not trying to interfere or to mediate that dispute.
    • June 21: US State Department in a report on human rights violations by India, says that Indian forces continue to commit serious violations of human rights in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir. The United States makes it clear that it does not want to force an acceptance of outside involvement in solving the Kashmir issue, including a proposed mediation by former President Jimmy Carter. Assistant Secretary of State Karl F Inderfurth says this in Congress's International Relations Committee's meeting.
    • June 25: Senator Tom Harkin introduces a resolution in US Senate calling for a peaceful and just settlement of the Kashmir issue. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook says that Kashmir issue is on top of government's agenda and it has to be resolved by India and Pakistan in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
    • June 27: The international community considers Kashmir as the root cause of tensions between India and Pakistan, says a senior official of the Clinton administration. The world is very much concerned about the nuclear capability of India and Pakistan ,Kashmir may again become a dangerous flash-point endangering peace and stability in the region, says Karl Inderfurth, Assistant Secretary of state for South Asia at a special news briefing.
    • June 28: British Minister of State for Foreign Office and Commonwealth (South Asian Affairs) Mr. Derek Fatchett says that Britain is interested in seeing some positive movement in talks between India and Pakistan to resolve their long-standing dispute on Kashmir. "Britain wants to encourage talks (between India and Pakistan) and wish to see a movement in particular direction," Mr. Fatchett apprises a representative delegation of Kashmiri leaders, belonging to all shades of political opinion in Britain, who call on him at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
    • June 29: Visiting US Senators focus squarely on Kashmir as a "flashpoint" in South Asia and call on both Pakistan and India to refrain from taking any provocative actions or steps towards Kashmir. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif calls upon the United Nations to take effective steps for the implementation of Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir. He states this in his meeting with Alvaro De Soto, personal envoy of the UN Secretary General who meets the prime minister to deliver a letter from the Secretary General Kofi Annan.
    • July 8: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee urges Pakistan to sign a no-first-use nuclear arms pact and a non-aggression accord with India.
    • July 12: China and Japan express concern over the growing tension between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue particularly after the nuclearisation of South Asia.
    • July 15: The Indian government rejects China's proposed multilateral talks on Kashmir dispute.
    • July 23: India's Home Ministry admits that 748 persons including 438 civilians, have been killed in past six months in the held Jammu and Kashmir by the Indian forces.
    • July 27: US President Clinton says India poses a major problem by refusing to accept any mediation on the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir. He said this while addressing a fund-raising dinner for the Democratic Party in Aspen, Colorado.
    • July 28: Upon his arrival in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for the 10th Summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Pakistan's Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif reiterates that Kashmir is the basic issue and root-cause of all the tensions between Pakistan and India and in the region.
    • July 30: The one and half hours long meeting between Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee fails to bear any fruit due to New Delhi's intransigence on seriously addressing the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. The opposition MP in British House of Commons, Michael Colvin says the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association should take the Kashmir issue on their agenda to help India and Pakistan resolve the longstanding dispute. "We have been trying to persuade the Commonwealth heads of the governments and commonwealth Parliamentary Association that they should put the Kashmir issue on their agenda."
    • July 31: The Indian aggression on the border areas of Azad Kashmir leaves at least 34 civilians dead and more than 71, including 13 Pakistani soldiers, injured.
    • August 3: The United States urges Pakistan and India to refrain from provocative actions and upkeep a restraint while declining to mediate between the two sides until asked by both Islamabad and New Delhi. Britain urges the governments of India and Pakistan to start talks aimed at resolving a bloody border dispute. Foreign Office minister Derek Fatchett says failure to end shootings across the disputed Kashmir border threatens the security of the whole region. Meanwhile, the United States offers to mediate between Pakistan and India to head off a crisis between the two recently declared nuclear powers. White House spokesman PJ Crowley says, "The situation in Kashmir is one of those underlying issues that is central to the tensions that exist in South Asia,"
    • August 5: Former Indian Chief of Naval Staff Admiral L. Ramdas while speaking at the convention 'campaign against nuclear Weapons' at Chennai asks the Indian government to accept Pakistan's proposal of third party mediation to resolve the outstanding disputes. Ramdas says, South African President Nelson Mandela could be asked to intervene and attempt to settle the contentious issue of Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
    • August 7: Expressing deep concern on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) over the recent deteriorating situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Qatar the Chairman of the Conference of Foreign Ministers says the military operation against the Kashmiri people must come to an end. He apprises the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities that the OIC expresses its disappointment that no agreement could be reached at the recent SAARC Summit in Colombo for a bilateral dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India, contrary to the desire of the international community.
    • August 15: Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani admits that New Delhi's troops are killing at least eight to ten Muslims daily in held Kashmir, Voice of America (VOA) reports.
    • August 16: Hundreds of Sikhs and Kashmiris stage separate demonstrations outside the Indian High Commission in London on Independence Day of India to condemn brutalities being committed in Punjab and Kashmir and demand an end to occupation of their homelands by Delhi. Amnesty International deplores the statements of the Indian Home Minister, L.K. Advani on held Kashmir describing these 'as unbecoming and violative of human rights'. Expressing strong reaction against his statements, the Amnesty says the Indian government is not accepting that human rights are abused in occupied Kashmir. Member Parliament of the British Labour Party Tom Cox urges upon the international community to play its role in resolving the Kashmir issue, as it was the ripe time to do so.
    • August 17: Pakistan's Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz calls upon the international community to see the “heightened sense of urgency to reduce tensions in South Asia” and play an effective role in settling the Kashmir dispute. “The situation is rife for an aggrandized action of international community as there is a heightened sense of urgency for reducing tension in the region and addressing the Kashmir dispute,” he apprises British MP Tom Cox. The Chairman of British Pakistani parliamentary group in British Parliament, Mr. Tom Cox regrets lack of an action by world powers to stop Indian aggression in occupied Kashmir.
    • August 19: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee renews offers of talks with Pakistan. Vajpayee, however, says that although India is ready to hold the talks “at any place,” the “dialogue must be comprehensive and not just focussed on Kashmir.”
    • August 26: India bans the import of the highly popular Encyclopaedia Britannica on CDs because it shows Kashmir as a disputed territory. A home ministry spokesman says the ban has been enforced, as the “external boundaries of India have not been depicted correctly in the maps” in the Britannica.
    • September 01: Pakistan and Indian Foreign Secretaries hold second meeting on the sidelines of NAM Summit in Durban and hold intensive discussions on the modalities to operationalise mechanism for the resumption of stalled dialogue, the Foreign Office says “Pakistan believes the Islamabad Joint Statement of 23rd June 1997 should remain the basis of the
    • dialogue. The two priority issues of peace and security, and Jammu and Kashmir, which top the agreed agenda, must be discussed specifically and substantively,” a Foreign Office statement says. Minister for Information Mushahid Hussain Syed condemning the gang rapes by Indian troops urges the international community and the human right activists to take note “of the crimes against humanity.” He says, “Kashmir has turned out to be the second illustration, after the Second World War, apart from Bosnia, where rape is being used as a weapon.”
    • September 02: President of the Republic of South Africa and Chairman NAM, Nelson Mandela, at the Inaugural Session of NAM in Durban, unequivocally expresses the support of the Movement for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. He states, “The issue of Jammu and Kashmir should be solved through peaceful negotiations and we are willing to lend all the strength we have to the resolution of this matter,” said President Mandela of South Africa, who assumes the chairmanship of the 12th NAM Summit. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee agree that any future dialogue between India and Pakistan should cover all bilateral issues including Kashmir.
    • September 03: Pakistan's Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz in his address at 12th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit says the unresolved issue of Kashmir is a major cause of tension and instability in South Asia, “and has led to new escalations and dangers”. “This issue involves the destiny of the people and cannot be wished away”. Sartaj reiterates that the people of Kashmir must be given the right of self-determination, which has been denied to them for the last 50 years. Addressing the NAM summit, Vajpayee restates the Indian position that it regards its long-standing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, as a strictly bilateral affair.
    • September 04: Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad and his Indian counterpart K. Raghunath reach at “an understanding, in principle, to operationalise the mechanism for dialogue between India and Pakistan on all issues as per the agreed agenda”. The Indian government shows anger when South African President Nelson Mandela raises the Kashmir issue which New Delhi views as a purely bilateral dispute with Pakistan at the multilateral Non-Aligned Movement summit in Durban.
    • September 06: Former Indian Premier Inder Kumar Gujral says India is wrong in reacting strongly to South African President Nelson Mandela's offer to help resolve the Kashmir dispute with Pakistan.
    • September 07: In his annual report to the 53rd session of the United Nations General Assembly due to begin on September 21, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says that the rising tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and other issues in the backdrop of nuclear tests by the two countries, underscores that the world still faces the “threat of nuclear annihilation.”
    • September 08: India strongly objects to the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan's statement describing Kashmir as one of the causes of concern world-wide.
    • September 13: The upcoming talks between Indian and Pakistani premiers in New York may mark “a threshold in settlement” of the Kashmir issue, which “is a problem that has been there for the past 50 years,” says Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes.
    • September 16: US Senator Harry Reid says there is no justification for the Kashmir issue remaining unresolved for so many years and India should be persuaded to give the right of self-determination to the Kashmiri people.
    • September 21: Stressing that terrorism is not a consequence of conflict between Islam and the West, President Clinton calls for resolution of Kashmir and other disputes which fester “ancient animosities” resulting in “senseless killings of innocent people.”
    • September 22: Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif asks UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to appoint a special representative on Kashmir, ensure regular monitoring of the Line of Control (LoC) and take measures to reduce the risk of conflict in the region. He states this in his meeting with the UN Secretary General ahead of his crucial meeting with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The Pakistani side is optimistic but cautious at the same time about the outcome of the talks.
    • September 23: Pakistan and India agree to resume their stalled dialogue on Kashmir and other security issues, in what appears to be a concession by India in face of rising international pressure, to reduce tensions in South Asia. A joint statement from the two premiers, even before the beginning of their summit talks at New York's Palace Hotel, says the foreign secretaries reach an agreement to “operationalise the mechanism to address all items in the agreed agenda of June 23, 1997 in a purposeful and composite manner in October and November.” Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif while talking to the leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mir Waiz Umar Farooq, says that India will soon realise it cannot suppress the struggling people of Kashmir through force. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in a press conference says that a new chapter in Indo-Pakistani cooperation is being opened. Vajpayee says we have agreed to reopen a hotline for communication between the two Prime Ministers during crises, and to establish bus, road and rail links between the two countries. “Firing on the border will be stopped,” he said, referring to repeated shelling across the Line of Control in Kashmir. Addressing the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif says that the United Nations, the major powers and the international community have a responsibility to support and facilitate a solution of the Jammu and Kashmir issue. “We request the UN Secretary General to take appropriate initiatives to implement the Security Council resolutions on Kashmir and to ease tensions and build confidence”, he adds.
    • September 27: The Indian army fires at two vehicles carrying UN military observers in Azad Kashmir's Neelum valley, says an official source. Captain Fieres of Belgium and an Italian officer, heading towards Athmaqam from Dudnial in Neelum valley, came under fire by the Indian troops, but the bullets miss their targets. Two officials of the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UN-MOGIP) narrowly escape Indian firing from across the border in Neelum Valley, military officials say They say, Captain Fierens of Belgium and Captain Tuzzonilo of Italy, travelling in two separate vehicles, carrying UN flag, to Muzaffarabad, came under machine-gun fire, of the Indian troops when they reached at Lawat, a border village in Neelum Valley. Some bullets hit the doors of the vehicles, damaging them partially. However, the officials miraculously escape.
    • September 28: The United Nations' Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) announces to hold a high-level inquiry into firing incidents by Indian troops on UN observers, Chief Observer Brigadier General Sergio Espinosa Davies says. “My team members remained under direct Indian firing during the monitoring operation twice,” the Chief Observer belonging to Chili says.
     
    1999
    • February 20: In response to an invitation by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, arrives in Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif receives Atal Bihari Vajpaye at Wahga border visits Pakistan.
    • February 21: A civic reception is held in honor of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the Governor's House in Lahore. The two leaders discuss the entire range of bilateral relations, regional cooperation within SAARC, and issues of international concern.
      The Foreign Secretaries of Pakistan and India sign a Memorandum of understanding identifying measures aimed at promoting an environment of peace and security between the two countries.
    • May 8: War between the army personnel of India and Pakistan begins in Kargil, as freedom fighters launch offensive against Indian troops.
    • May 26: India launches air strikes against Mujahideen in occupied Kashmir for the first time in 20 years. Indian fighter planes and helicopter gunships make six sorties against three targets inside occupied Kashmir.
      Pakistan terms the Indian air strikes in Kashmir "very, very serious" and put its troops on high alert. The military authorities express concern that India may be trying to move past the line of control, which divides the Pakistan and Indian forces.
    • July 4: US President Bill Clinton and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in their meeting in Washington discuss Kashmir situation and US President Clinton urges both India and Pakistan to hold talks over the matter. The joint statement by the leaders comes after three hours of talks in Washington on the deepening crisis.
    • December 24: Five heavily armed militants hijack an Indian Airlines Airbus carrying 189 passengers and 11 crewmembers en route from Katmandu to New Delhi. The plane is diverted to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where the hijackers release 27 hostages.
    • December 25: The hijacked Indian Airlines plane lands at an airport in southern Afghanistan after a flight from Dubai. The hijackers demand release of 36 mujahideen languishing in Indian jails
    • December 31: The Indian Government agrees to release three imprisoned mujahideen in exchange for the hostages' safe return. The plane and remaining hostages are released unharmed.
     
    2000
    • January 07: In Srinagar, the biggest rally, marking the Kashmir and Al-Quds Day adopts a resolution emphasising the urgent need of facilitating liberation of Kashmir from India and restoration of Al-Quds from Israel's occupation.
    • January 10: Indian troops desecrate the local Mazar-e-Shuhada, which sparks furious anti-India demonstrations in Ganderbal. The troops dig out several graves during night.
    • January 11: Grish Chandar Sexena, the governor of occupied Kashmir, admits that the Indian army has lost the courage to combat the Mujahideen and the troops are afraid of confronting them. He states this while addressing a high level meeting of puppet regime in Srinagar.
    • January 13: The Special Representative of the Arch Bishop of Canterbury, London, calls for an international conference to settle the Kashmir issue. Addressing a press Conference in Islamabad, he said, Kashmiris must be associated with such a conference. He deplores that the world community is playing role of a silent spectator despite the fact that India has unleashed a reign of terror in occupied Kashmir.
    • Indian government gives approval for deployment of three more battalions of Border Security Force (BSF) in occupied Kashmir.
    • January 22: A two-day non-governmental Regional Conference in Calcutta after due deliberations concludes that peace and security will elude South Asia until the Kashmir issue is resolved. The conference is jointly sponsored by Akhil Bharat Ratna Sahba and Harijan Sang Sabha. Delegations from India, Nepal, Mianmar (Burma), Pakistan and occupied Kashmir take part in it.
    • January 24: Speaking at the launching ceremony of a book 'Kashmir in Conflict' at the House of Commons, in London, Lord Evebury and Lord Nazir Ahmad emphasize urgency of starting a dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue. Victoria Schofield is the author of the book.
    • February 04: An International seminar on Kashmir issue is held in Islamabad Pakistan, as part of February 5 Solidarity Day's programme. Muhammad Rafiq Tarar, President of Pakistan presides the seminar, which is attended by large gathering of prominent intellectuals, journalists and other important personalities from home and abroad.
    • February 05: The Pakistani nation, for the first time ever joins the en-masse prayers at all levels at 10.00 a.m., to practically demonstrate, in a big way, their unswerving solidarity with struggling people of occupied Kashmir. Sirens are sounded all across the country at 9.58 a.m. and all traffic comes to a standstill. Kashmiris, all across occupied Kashmir, also join the people of Pakistan, and Azad Kashmir, in prayers en-masse at 10.00 a.m.
    • February 25: In a blood-curdling incident of state terrorism, Indian troops cross the line of control before dawn and massacre 14 innocent civilians in the Lanjot Kaonthi village in Kotli sub-sector along the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Kashmir. The troops storm Abdul Hameed's residence, where several residents of the area were attending a Khatm-e-Quran. They slit the throats of three persons and take away their heads along with them.
    • February 28: Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and abroad observe protest day against collective massacre of 14 Kashmiris at village Lonjot, in Nakial sector by Indian troops.
    • February 29: APHC leaders detained in Udhampur jail in occupied Kashmir go on hunger strike to protest against the inhuman treatment being meted out to them.
    • March 03: Protest demonstration is held in front of UN office in Dhaka, in Bangladesh, to condemn the killing of innocent Kashmiris by Indian army personnel across the LoC.
    • March 04: Notorious Indian armed agent, Seth Gujar, who killed 40 Jamat-e-Islami and other political activists, is shot dead in Islamabad area of occupied Kashmir.
    • March 09: Four Kashmiri students are expelled from Aligarh University in connection with demonstrations against occupied Kashmir's puppet Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, during his visit to the campus last month.
    • March 16: A seminar of leading Indian intellectuals and bureaucrats in Jammu, urges India to start meaningful talks with Pakistan. Farooq Abdullah, puppet Chief Minister of occupied Kashmir, addressing the seminar, admits that the list of Indian injustices, carried out against Kashmiris is long. Farooq Abdullah also reminds his Indian masters that it is India itself, which has taken the Kashmir issue to the United Nations. India and its leadership have pledged to Kashmiris their right to self-determination. However, later they reneged from this commitment.
    • March 19: The Kashmir police besiege the head office of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, in Srinagar and thoroughly, searches it, to prevent possible demonstrations on the occasion of US President Clinton's arrival in India.
    • March 21: Thirty-five Sikhs are shot dead by the agents of Indian secret agencies at village Chatti Singhpora, near Mattan in district Islamabad. The armed men drag the villagers out of their houses and gun them down after lining them in a single row. 34 persons dies on the spot while two other critically injured succumb to injuries at hospital.
    • March 22: The President of London based Council of Khalistan, Jagjit Singh Chauhan, also president of International Council of Sikhs, in an interview says Indian troops involved in massacre of 35 Sikhs in village Chatti Singpora, in Mattan area of Islamabad.
    • Life remains paralysed, all across occupied Kashmir, due to mourning strike against murder of 35 Sikhs by Indian troops.
    • March 28: APHC leader, Mir Waiz Umer Farooq leads a 40 vehicles caravan to Chatti Singhpora, to practically demonstrate solidarity with the Sikhs. A rally is also held at Vancouver, in North America, which is attended by over one thousand Sikhs and Muslims, who hold India responsible for the massacre of Sikhs in occupied Kashmir.
    • March 31: Crippling strike is observed across occupied valley on the “Daswan” (Antam Ardas) 10th Day of the massacre of Sikhs at Chatti Singhpora. All Parties Hurriyat Conference and Sikh Joint Action Committee give the joint strike call.
    • April 04: The APHC Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani, senior APHC leaders, Professor Abdul Ghani Butt and Maulvi Abbas Ansari, are released under interational pressure after 8 months detention in notorious Jodhpur jail.
    • April 12: The issue of Indian atrocities on women in occupied Kashmir is raised at the UN Human Rights Commission, in Geneva. A seminar on Kashmir is also held in Geneva, which is addressed besides others, by human rights activist, Kiran Parker, a prominent lawyer.
    • April 15: In Geneva, the OIC Contact Group on Kashmir, supporting the Kashmiris' just cause, calls for restarting the dialogue on Kashmir dispute.
    • April 19: The United Nations Human Rights Commission, in its annual report, 1999, says that India is among those countries, which are not accessible to human rights activists. It specially mentions that human rights defenders face great risk in India.
    • April 20: The Kashmiri Pandits, at a convention in New Delhi, categorically support the Kashmir Liberation Movement. This is stated in a resolution adopted at the convention of Kashmiri Pandit Refugees Organisation (KPRO).
    • A Sikh member of Indian Parliament, Kartal Singh, creates furore in the house, at a time when the Home Minister, LK Advani was giving statement on Kashmir. He interrupts the Minister by remarking that Indian agencies were responsible for the massacre of Sikhs at Chatti Singhpora, in Islamabad.
    • April 22: The London based Amnesty International, in its annual report, presented to the session of the UN Human Rights Commission, in Geneva, says that massive human rights violations are going on in occupied Kashmir. It denounces India for turning the Kashmir's soil into a forbidden land for international human rights organisations, including Amnesty.
    • April 27: The puppet Chief Minister of occupied Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, addressing a function, admits that Indian troops are engaged in massive human rights violations. His pro India National Conference party, in a meeting, demands judicial inquiry into the Indian massacre in occupied Kashmir from 1990 until now.
    • April 28: In Srinagar, the visiting member of the US House of Representatives, David Bonior tells APHC that there is no change in the American policy on Kashmir. Mr. Bonior strongly condemns killing of 35 Sikhs in Chatti Singhpora, custodial killing of five Muslims in Pathribal and shooting down of eight Muslim demonstrators by Indian troops at Brakpora, in Islamabad, in southern Kashmir.
    • April 29: Member of the US House of Representatives, David Bonior, in an interview with a Kashmiri newspaper on the conclusion of his two-day visit to Srinagar, says that the American President, Bill Clinton and the South African leader, Nelson Mandela, could play key role in settling the Kashmir issue.
    • May 07: An International Organisation, “Save the Children Fund” says that women and children are the worst affected by the military violence during the past eleven years of the ongoing upsurge for liberation in occupied Kashmir. Speaking on the occasion of launching of a report by head of the sociology department, in Kashmir University, the Director of the Fund, Martin Kelsey estimates that 15 to 20 thousand children and women have migrated to evade military oppression.
    • May 12: New Delhi based, United States diplomats' delegation, headed by the First Secretary (Political) in American Embassy in New Delhi, holds a meeting in Srinagar with APHC Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani and other APHC leaders. The APHC reiterates that it would not accept talks within the framework of Indian constitution and emphasises that the talks should be unconditional and tripartite, involving all the three parties to the dispute.
    • May 17: The New Delhi-based Military Attaches of 24 countries, were secretly brought to Srinagar and after a few hours' stay, were surreptitiously flown to Jammu.
    • May 18: The London based, Amnesty International demands release of all detained Kashmiri leaders and political workers by India. It also demands annulment of the draconian law, Public Safety Act; if it cannot be annulled then it should be amended as to conform to the standard of protection of human rights, demands Amnesty.
    • May 23: The British High Commissioner to New Delhi, Sir Rob Young says that the British government would encourage any move that strengthens the possibilities of solving the Kashmir issue. During his meeting with APHC leaders in Srinagar, he says that efforts for solving this issue are very essential.
    • June 06: A prominent liberation activist, Javed Ahmad Zargar is released after 11 years illegal detention in Indian jails.
    • June 11: In a seminar held in Srinagar, Admiral Ram Das, a former Indian Navy Chief, expresses solidarity with the people of occupied Kashmir for all their suffering.
    • June 26: A prominent Hindu religious leader, Jagatguru Shankar Acharia, during his Srinagar visit, strongly denounces trampling of human rights in occupied Kashmir. In his meeting with APHC chairman, Syed Ali Shah Gilani, Acharia says, how those responsible for death and destruction and disgracing of women, could talk of the supremacy of law.
    • June 27: APHC chairman, Syed Ali Gilani, strongly reacts to passage of the so-called autonomy resolution by the puppet assembly. He says that Kashmiris' demand is for the right to self-determination promised to them by Indian leaders and the International community and that autonomy is no issue for them.
    • June 29: The Amnesty International expresses its annoyance and concern over increasing incidents of custodial killings of youth in occupied Kashmir. The Amnesty in its latest communication to occupation authorities in occupied Kashmir, particularly mentions recent killing in custody of three Kashmiri youth, Abdul Hamid of Shopian, Abdul Qayyum of Pampore and Rafiq Ahmad Baqal of Sringar.
    • Puppet regime bans the manufacturing of the finest and costliest Shawls, Shahtoosh, under pressure by its Indian masters. Thousands of artisans are deprived of their livelihood.
    • July 04: Indian cabinet rejects the autonomy resolution passed by the so-called Assembly of occupied Kashmir on June 26.
    • July 18: Former puppet Chief Minister, Ghulam Muhammad Shah, supports the APHC's stand on Tripartite talks on Kashmir.
    • July 20: The veteran Hurriyat leader, Professor Abdul Ghani Butt, is elected as the new Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference for two years' term.
    • July 24: Hizbul Mujahideen, a Mujahideen outfit, announces a “unilateral ceasefire” for three months beginning with immediate effect. It also expresses its willingness for an unconditional dialogue with the government of India for the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
    • July 25: The lawyers in Sopore and Baramullah, boycott the courts in protest against murder of the eminent lawyer Ghulam Jeelani at the hands of armed agents of the Indian army.
    • July 31: An American Congressman, David E. Bonior, in an article in Washington Post says that reduction of the fear of nuclear conflict in South Asia depends on resolving Kashmir crisis. He suggests that President Clinton must now appoint a special envoy for Kashmir.
    • August 01: Thirty five people including 20 Amarnath Yaatris (pilgrims) are killed and more than sixty injured, some of them critically due to Indian troops indiscriminate firing in a crowded bazaar of Phalgam, a tourist spot in the south of occupied Kashmir.
    • August 03: Amarnath Yatris hold Indian paramilitary forces responsible for the massacre in Pahalgam. While talking to newsmen, Shanker Lal, a resident of Agra, Ajay, a driver from Gujarat as well as a seriously injured Yatri at Barzala Hospital, Srinagar, confirm that Indian Central Reserve Police Force opened fire on people in Phalgam.
    • Chief of Kashmir Mass Movement, Farida Behanji, is released after 5 years of illegal detention.
    • August 17: Switzerland Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Youth Alliance stages a protest demonstration and a sit-in in front of UN office in Geneva, against the military repression in occupied Kashmir.
    • August 27: The Amnesty International calls for respecting the fundamental rights, particularly the right to life and the security of person in occupied Kashmir. The call is made in a letter to the puppet Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah.
    • August 29: Rashtriya Rifles desecrates a graveyard of (martyrs) in Bandipora by removing gravestones and other signs to pave the way for establishing an army camp in the area.
    • London based Amnesty International, in a statement in connection with the Day of the Disappeared People, demands of the Indian government to investigate the rising number of disappeared persons in occupied Kashmir. It further says, since 1990, up to 1000 people have disappeared after being arrested by Indian troops.
    • September 02: In a letter to the UN Secretary General Kofi Anan, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman, Professor Abdul Ghani Butt, mentions about the plight of Kashmiris. He particularly mentions that the Kashmiris are being subjected to Indian state terrorism.
    • September 05: Senior All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz is released after an imprisonment of eight years. A prominent freedom fighter, Muhammad Yasin Bhat is also released in Srinagar after eight years of illegal detention.
    • September 06: Former Indian Union Minister, Prof Saifuddin Soz, addressing a press conference in Srinagar says, the Indian plan to carry out census in occupied Kashmir is conspiracy to reduce the Muslim majority.
    • September 09: The employees of puppet administration in occupied Kashmir hold a conference in Srinagar and ask the 22,000 of their colleagues to refuse census duty in the held territory.
    • September 11: The employees of puppet regime in occupied Kashmir boycott the census operation that is to begin in the state after a long span of 20 years. Strong opposition is voiced by political and other effective quarters against the census.
    • September 14: The OIC contact group in New York announces to appoint an envoy on Kashmir and to set-up a team to see for itself the prevailing situation in occupied Kashmir.
    • September 16: The Amnesty International calls upon US President Bill Clinton to take up with India large-scale human rights violations in occupied Kashmir. The Executive Director of Amnesty International, US, William F. Schulz says, the United States must take up with India the civilian sufferings as a result of human rights violations in Kashmir.
    • September 17: The Census Director of the puppet regime, Feroz Ahmad, in a press conference, admits that boycott by the employees of puppet administration and opposition by influential Kashmiri circles made the census operation in occupied Kashmir impracticable.
    • September 18: Showkat Ahmad Bakhsi, a prominent liberation leader, is released under the directions of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court after nearly a decade of illegal detention.
    • The outgoing Indian Army Chief, General V. P. Malik, advises his government to initiate political process instead of entirely relying on armed forces in dealing with the situation in occupied Kashmir.
    • September 20: A German Magazine, 'Focus', reports the number of Kashmiris disappeared in custody to be in thousands. The magazine carries a report which puts the number of the Kashmiris killed by Indian troops at 70,000.
    • September 27: A delegation of the Association of the Relatives of the disappeared Persons briefs the visiting European diplomats team in Srinagar, about the overall human rights situation in occupied Kashmir.
    • September 28: The World Assembly of Muslim Youth in its two-day conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, calls for trade and economic sanctions against India to pressurise it to resolve the Kashmir issue.
    • October 05: A prominent liberation activist, Manzoor Ahmad Sofi, is released after 10-years of illegal detention from Kot Bhalwal Jail.
    • October 17: A 4-member US delegation of diplomats holds a meeting with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman, Professor Abdul Ghani Butt in Srinagar and discusses the Kashmir issue.
    • October 18: Several members of puppet Assembly of occupied Kashmir accuse the Indian troops of indiscriminate custodial killings and genocide across the valley and Muslim-dominated areas of Jammu.
    • October 28: One-man inquiry commission of Justice S. R. Pandian holds the Indian troops guilty of opening fire on peaceful procession at Brakpora, Islamabad in south Kashmir on April 3, killing 8 people and injuring 30.
    • November 25: In Jammu, Muhammad Yasin Butt is sentenced by a TADA court to 17 years and three months rigorous imprisonment. Rs3000 fine is also imposed on him in a false case.
    • November 26: India declares so-called unilateral ceasefire during the holy month of Ramadan but despite the ceasefire troops continue custodial killings, siege, search and crackdown operations.
    • December 26: Indian troops destroy Srinagar's Batwara market after Badamibagh car bomb blast in which nine troops died and 25 suffered injuries. More than 100 shops are completely destroyed while 20 shops are burnt down.
     
    2001
    • January 05: Head of visiting UK Parliamentary delegation to Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Phil Woolis voices concern over Indian atrocities and calls for granting Kashmiris the right to self-determination.
    • January 12: Member of the British Parliament Phil Woolis calls upon India to facilitate the All Parties Hurriyet Conference leaders intending to visit Pakistan and Azad Kashmir to hold talks with Pakistani and Kashmiri authorities.
    • January 15: Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Defense Minister George Fernandes favor smooth passage of All Parties Hurriyet Conference leaders to Pakistan for talks on holding peace process.
    • January 16: Indian government decides to deny passport to former All Parties Hurriyet Conference Chairman, Syed Ali Gillani for visiting Pakistan.
    • January 18: Indian Home Minister L K Advani gives consent to the All Parties Hurriyet Conference team that passports will be issued to the Kashmiris' team, however, “not all the APHC leaders will be allowed to go to Pakistan”.
    • January 23: Indian government extends unilateral ceasefire in occupied Kashmir for one month.
    • Pakistan's Ambassador to Russia Iftikhar Murshid says, “Russia recognizes Jammu and Kashmir as disputed territory and it would support peaceful settlement of the core issue”.
    • January 25: Indian government okays plan for phased withdrawal of its army from J&K in next five years.
    • February 17: The Organization of the Islamic Conference urges New Delhi to take immediate steps to ensure protection of mosques in India and occupied Kashmir. The OIC also calls upon its member states to extend humanitarian assistance to the people of occupied Kashmir.
    • February 19: The US chapter of Britain based Amnesty International demands an immediate and impartial inquiry into the custodial death of Jalil Ahmad Shah in Haigam in Jammu and Kashmir and the police firing on demonstrators protesting his death.
    • February 22: US Congressmen Joseph Pitts and Jim McDermott ask India to issue travel documents to All Parties Hurriyet Conference leadership to enable them to visit Pakistan to bolster peace process. Joseph Pitts in his meeting with Atal Bihari Vajpayee urges Indian Prime Minister to facilitate Hurriyet leadership by granting them of travel documents to visit Pakistan to create an atmosphere leading towards peace process.
    • February 23: San Francisco based Asia Foundation urges US government to play its vigorous diplomatic role on Kashmir in sharp contrast to India's known stand of settling all its disputes with Pakistan bilaterally, free from any kind of foreign intervention.
    • February 26: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee finally prevails upon his hawkish colleagues in the central cabinet and decides that a team of all the seven members of All Parties Hurriyet Conference executive committee be allowed to go to Pakistan.
    • Peter Pike, member of British Parliament, underlines the need for peaceful negotiated settlement of long-standing Kashmir dispute. Addressing Kashmiri refugees at Amber Camp, the British MP says it is obligatory on British government to play its pivotal role in resolving Kashmir dispute.
    • February 27: British Prime Minister Tony Blair expresses concern over the defiant attitude of India regarding brutal occupation of Kashmir and wants the Indian forces to withdraw from the territory to pave way for an early peaceful resolution of the dispute.
    • British parliamentarian Peter Pike states this in a meeting with Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary at the Kashmir House. He says the British Prime Minister is deeply perturbed by the continuous bloodshed in Kashmir and is ready to play a role for solution of the issue.
    • The Chief Executive of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf while talking to the members of an Indian delegation who call on him at Army House, Rawalpindi says we are willing to meet India more than halfway but will also like to guard our honor and dignity.
    • February 28: Henry J. Hyde, the new chairman of the House International Relations Committee expresses willingness to mediate between Pakistan and India to resolve Kashmir dispute.
    • March 11: United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says UN is always available for the solution of Kashmir dispute, but clarifies this could be possible only if both Pakistan and India agree to it.
    • March 19: The former puppet Chief Minister of occupied Kashmir and Awami National Conference President Ghulam Muhammad Shah says Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory and not an integral part of India.
    • March 25: The President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade while talking to newsmen at Chaklala Airbase before his departure for home at the end of his three-day visit to Pakistan calls for resumption of dialogue between Pakistan and India for the solution of Kashmir dispute.
    • March 27: Protest strike and demonstrations continue in occupied Kashmir on the fourth consecutive day against the desecration of the Holy Quran by Hindu zealots in Indian Punjab and New Delhi.
    • March 28: The British Lord Mayor Muhammad Nasim Khan says Britain fully supports the right to self-determination of the people of Kashmir.
    • March 30: Addressing the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, the APHC leaders call for world community's support in stopping the Indian carnage and repression in occupied Kashmir.
    • April 19: Military attachés from 23 countries including US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Australia and Japan during their visit to Azad Kashmir and the Line of Control express concern over the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan at the LoC urging both the countries to restart peaceful dialogue process.
    • April 20: Senior All Parties Hurriyet Conference leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz addressing Juma congregation at Faisal Mosque Islamabad urges world community to pressurize India to concede Kashmiris' rights in accordance with the UN resolutions.
    • April 21: US Congresswoman Ms Cynthia McKinney arrives in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on a one-day visit to see the plight of Kashmiri refugees sheltered in the refugee camps.
    • April 24: Indian agents attack the All Parties Hurriyet Conference's Headquarter in Srinagar.
    • April 29: Canada supports trilateral negotiations between India, Pakistan and Kashmiri representatives to find a peaceful and negotiated settlement of Kashmir dispute, says Canadian Minister for Foreign Affairs, John Manley, in a letter to Mushtaq A Jeelani, Executive Director of the Kashmiri-Canadian Council.
    • May 07: UK Conservative Party will priorities Kashmir problem after assuming power, says William Haig MP, leader of British Conservative Party. He hails British Kashmiris for pleading the case of suppressed Kashmiri brethren in an amicable way and condemns the weakness of the UK government in resolving this issue.
    • May 10: Politicians, celebrities and members of different ethnic communities take part in a demonstration in the heart of London to protest against the Indian atrocities against innocent Kashmiris and the recently passed Terrorism Act 2000.
    • May 22: A four-member All Parties Hurriyet Conference delegation led by Mirwaiz Omer Farooq arrives in New Delhi to meet diplomatic missions, explaining them reasons behind their rejection of India's talks offer.
    • June 02: India's National Human Rights Commission asks puppet regime in Jammu and Kashmir and the federal defense and home ministries to explain the rise in custodial deaths in held territory.
    • It asks the two federal ministries, the occupied Kashmir's chief secretary and its police chief to send their detailed investigation reports within two months on the reported killings.
    • June 03: An 11-member fact-finding Human Rights team releases its report after a 10-day tour of occupied Kashmir and asks for an end to rampant custodial killings, rapes and torture by the Indian Army. The team led by Dr K. Bala Gopal of Human Rights Forum of Andhra Pradesh addressing a news conference says ceasefire in occupied Kashmir has brought no respite for general public.
    • June 09: Four women devotees are killed and over 110 people injured in a grenade attack targeting congregation inside the famous shrine of revered Kashmiri saint Sheikh Nooruddin Wali at Charar-e-Sharif, 28-kms southwest of Srinagar city.
    • An eleven-member delegation of five Indian Human Rights Organizations led by Dr K. Bala Gopal strongly criticizes Indian Army for excesses in occupied Kashmir. After completion of ten days visit to occupied Kashmir Dr K. Bala Gopal in a report says the Indian Army's atrocities are going on unabated against the innocent civilians.
    • June 10: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference announces a temporary suspension of all strikes and rallies until conclusion of a key summit between Pakistani and Indian leaders. The APHC says it does not wish the forthcoming India-Pakistan summit talks on Kashmir should be disturbed or derailed by any means.
    • June 20: Human Rights Watchdog, Amnesty International expresses serious concern over gross human rights violations in Indian held Kashmir. The AI in a report mentions arbitrary arrests, detentions and excessive force are increasingly being used to silence critics of the government in strife torn occupied Kashmir. Amnesty's report lists numerous cases, which amount to abuse of Public Safety Act in Kashmir by the puppet regime.
    • The puppet regime in Indian Held Kashmir suffers yet another setback as it fails to hold the Panchayat elections in Pulwama district like other places in the held valley due to public boycott.
    • June 25: Senior All Parties Hurriyet Conference leader, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq leaves for Mali to attend the OIC Conference of Foreign Ministers at Bamako.
    • June 28: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference demands withdrawal of Indian troops from occupied Kashmir and holding of plebiscite under UN auspices. The demand is made in a memorandum presented to the OIC Foreign Ministers Conference at Bamako in Mali. The memorandum lists UN Security Council resolutions, mandating holding of plebiscite in occupied Kashmir as per Kashmiris' aspirations. The memorandum urges the Indian government to end state terrorism, military repression and crackdowns in occupied Kashmir.
    • June 29: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq urges the Islamic Ummah in particular and world in general to help and support the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their struggle for self-determination as promised by the United Nations. While presenting the memorandum to the OIC Contact group on Jammu and Kashmir, Omar says Kashmiris would continue their just and historic struggle for the realization of their right to self-determination.
    • July 01: Canadian government expresses grave concern over human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and calls upon India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue through tripartite talks.
    • July 07: Chairman of All Parties Hurriyet Conference Professor Abdul Ghani Butt leaves Srinagar for New Delhi to discuss matters related to Hurriyet leaders' meeting with President Pervez Musharraf.
    • July 14: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf arrives in New Delhi on three day visit to take part in historic Agra Summit primarily dealing with the five decade long Kashmir dispute.
    • July 15: The Agra Summit the highest-level meet between India and Pakistan since the Lahore Summit in 1999, gets underway. President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee hold a long one-to-one talk with a positive start. The key issues of the discussion are bilateral relations, the decade-old dispute over Kashmir and their nuclear rivalry. But initial optimism wanes and the talks end without agreement, with the long-running dispute over Kashmir, as the main reason for the deadlock.
    • July 16: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf urges India to stop living in a 'make believe' world and wake up to the fact that Kashmir is the core issue preventing an end to more than 50 years of mutual hostility between the two countries. President Musharraf proposes a three-step mechanism-with Kashmir at the core for moving away from acrimony. In an eloquent and passionate speech to Indian news editors, Pakistani leader also urges India to accept the fact that any progress in bilateral ties is conditional on progress in resolving the long-running dispute over Kashmir.
    • July 20: Indian troops raid Eidgah locality in Srinagar and remove the foundation with the plaque being laid there in memory of missing Kashmiris from Indian troops' custody. Parents of a large number of missing persons and other people attend the foundation laying ceremony of the memorial for the missing Kashmiris. The site of the memorial is being vigilantly guarded by troops to prevent another attempt to lay the foundation. According to Human rights organisations in Srinagar estimates over three thousand people, mostly youth, are missing in military custody in the past 12 years.
    • July 22: 15 Hindus are massacred in Indian-held Kashmir when unknown gunmen dragged them out of their homes and shot them dead at point blank range. Five others are seriously injured in the attack and are taken to a hospital in the town of Kishtawar in Doda district.
    • July 23: “The outcome of the Agra Summit once again proves that India and Pakistan are not capable of continuing a sustained dialogue on long-term basis without the help of a third party”, a select group of experts on South Asia asserts during an informal discussion, which is also attended by the new US Ambassador to Islamabad, Wendy Chamberlin. Wendy refuses to characterise the summit meeting as a failure saying it is the beginning of a process. She says there could only be very modest expectations. The most important outcome is that both leaders have demonstrated their commitment to continue the process.
    • July 26: Head of Dukhtaran-i-Millat, Asia Andrabi is arrested, near Panth Chowk of Srinagar while proceeding to Doda.
    • July 27: Britain-based world human rights organisation Kashmir Watch holds India responsible for the delay in issuance of the joint declaration at the conclusion of the recent Indo-Pak Agra summit. Holding India responsible of the state of affairs the visiting chief of the Kashmir Watch Mir Muhammad Siddique Khawaja calls upon India to brush aside her traditional prejudice and negative behaviour towards Pakistan and deviation from the international norms in respect of the peaceful resolution of the global issue of Kashmir.
    • July 30: In occupied Kashmir, the Indian forces besiege the shrine of a famous Muslim saint Shah Ahmad Kirmani at Magam in Budgam district. The Border Security Force and Rashtriya Rifles personnel encircle the shrine in the wee hours. The pretext of the siege is as if two or three Mujahideen are holed up in the shrine. The local people believe that those in the shrine are devotees, visiting the holy place for blessing. Tension grips the whole area and the people apprehend that the shrine may be harmed.
    • August 04: The US reaffirming its commitment to finding peace in South Asia cites Kashmir dispute as the core issue of escalating tensions in the region and says the Bush administration wants durable solution. A senior official of the US State Department talking to a US based news agency says that US largely welcomes the dialogue process between India and Pakistan and the recently concluded Agra Summit is a major step towards restoring peace. According to the official, the US believes that dialogue process is the only means of resolving this issue, which is impeding economic growth of the region.
    • Nobel laureate and spiritual leader of Tibetans Dalai Lama welcomes the recent dialogue between the leaders of India and Pakistan to resolve the differences, including the Kashmir issue, and says the people of Kashmir should also be involved in the peace process. Inaugurating an inter-faith meet organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Rachanamak Samaj, he calls for shedding violence and wants the two countries to elicit the views of the Kashmiris on the issue.
    • August 06: APHC rules out talks with India's point man on Kashmir KC Pant and makes it clear that any formula for settlement of the Kashmir dispute in the framework of the Indian Constitution would not be acceptable to the people of Kashmir.
    • The Indian government decides to reinforce its military forces in occupied Kashmir. The Union Home Ministry decides to depute 1000 more Special Police Officers to Doda district and rush more forces to the region.
    • August 09: Puppet cabinet in occupied Kashmir declares all the six districts of Jammu as disturbed areas, providing sweeping powers to the military forces on the pretext of dealing with mujahideen.
    • August 11: Tibetan leader Dalai Lama is invited by the APHC for an assessment of the situation prevailing inside occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Moreover, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, leader of the APHC also discloses that formal invitation has been extended to him during his fortnight-long visit to Calcutta and Chennai.
    • August 20: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference leader, Farida Behanji, is released on court directions.
    • August 23: Senior Kashmiri leader, Syed Ali Gilani is arrested at Awantipora in Pulwama while on his way to Traal with a delegation where the Indian forces had killed in custody a youth Shabir Ahmad Wani. The APHC in a statement in Srinagar appeals to world organisations to take serious note of India's usurpation of Kashmiri leaders' basic right to free movement
    • August 29: London based Human Rights Organization Amnesty International expresses grave concern over Indian government's proposal to grant amnesty to Indian forces personnel for crimes involving human rights violations in occupied Kashmir. In an open letter to Indian Home Minister L K Advani, Amnesty International says,” No one should be allowed to operate outside the law.”
    • Syed Ali Gilani is put under house arrest by Indian police. Police surrounds the home of Gilani in Hyderpora on the outskirts of Srinagar early morning.
    • A three-member US Congress delegation visits forward positions on the Line of Control in Chakothi sector. The bipartisan delegation led by Senator Bob Graham, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, includes Senator Jon Kyl (Republican Arizona) and house representative Portr Goss (Republican Florida), Chairman of House select committee on intelligence visits Pakistani forward positions on the LoC in Chakothi sector, 58 kilometre southeast along with US diplomats.
    • August 30: Kashmiris in Britain express grave concern over the arrest of the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement, Ghulam Ahmad Mir and Chief of Jammu and Kashmir Freedom Movement, Saadullah Tantray.
    • September 06: The United States pledges to expand cooperation with India against terrorism, while urging New Delhi to find a solution over Kashmir with Pakistan taking into account the wishes of the territory's people. “America would like the Kashmir issue to be resolved peacefully”, new Ambassador Robert Black says in a speech in the business hub of Bombay. The Bush administration is willing to be helpful but we are convinced that this is an issue that only India and Pakistan can work out between them, taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
    • September 08: The permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, Ambassador Shamshad Ahmad Khan while talking to President of the Security Council for the current month, Ambassador Jean David Levitte of France says Kashmir dispute is at the heart of all problems and conflict in South Asia. Recalling Pakistan's consistent efforts for a meaningful and result-oriented dialogue with India, he emphasizes that a just and honourable settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes of the people of Kashmir would usher in an era of lasting peace and stability in the region.
    • September 11: Indian troops burn to ashes 30 residential houses and shops in Kupwara town in vindictive oppression.
    • September 21: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) claims to visit 1,395 detainees, 803 of them for the first time, in 23 places of detention in occupied Kashmir and make arrangements for the exchange of 768 Red Cross messages between them and their families last year.
    • September 22: “The forces in Indian held Kashmir have directives to kill freedom fighters rather than attempt to capture them alive”, a human rights report issued in the United States said. Statements by senior police and army officials confirm that the Indian forces are under “instructions” to kill these mujahideen rather than attempting to arrest them alive. Report on Human Rights Practices' for the year 2000, released by the Bureau of Labour, USA quotes glaring examples of human rights abuses in the occupied valley.
    • October 16: US Secretary of State, Colin Powell says the United States will push India and Pakistan to resume their dialogue on Kashmir to relieve tensions over the disputed region, which could lead to conflict and damage the US-led war on terrorism. Secretary of State Colin Powell says he would press the rival nuclear powers to cool their rhetoric over Kashmir, respect a border demarcation line and avoid any military action there.
    • October 20: The New York-based Human Rights Watch warns that the new anti-terrorism legislation, approved by the Indian cabinet, will give Indian police sweeping powers of arrest and detention. The Human Rights Watch observes that the broadly worded “Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance”, which is likely to be considered by the Indian parliament during its winter session beginning in November, sets forth a broad definition to terrorism that includes act of violence or disruption of essential services carried out with “intent to threaten the unity and integrity of India or to strike terror in any part of the people”.
     
    2002
    January 4: The 12th SAARC Summit, a historic opportunity for Pakistan and India to build on peace moves, opens in Islamabad. During the summit, the SAARC leaders discuss a 6-point agenda finalized by their foreign ministers for South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), additional protocol on terrorism and social charter, aimed at social development and poverty alleviation. Prime minister of Pakistan Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee meet on the sidelines of the SAARC summit, the first direct talks between leaders of the two neighboring countries in more than two years.
    January 7: UK Prime Minister Tony Blair urges Pakistan and India to hold 'proper, meaningful' dialogue to resolve their dispute over Kashmir. 'Both countries in these very difficult times understand the need to defeat terrorism and resolve difficult issues through dialogue and partnership”, says Blair.
    January 12: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, in a televised address to the nation, calls for a peaceful end to the dispute over Kashmir and for a renewed spirit of national unity. He says, “Kashmir runs in our blood. No Pakistani can afford to sever links with Kashmir. We will continue to extend our moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris. We will never budge from our principle stand on Kashmir issue, which must be resolved through dialogue in accordance with the wishes of the people of Pakistan and in accordance with the UN resolutions.”
    January 13: Iftikhar Gilani, prominent Kashmiri journalist and son-in-law of senior Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Gilani, is released in New Delhi from seven months of unlawful confinement. The release follows withdrawal of fabricated case against him by the Indian government.
    All Parties Hurriyet Conference welcomes the stand taken by Pakistan President Perverz Musharraf on Kashmir in his televised address and urges India to respond positively to resolve the issue. “We welcome the stand taken by President Musharraf on Kashmir issue and urge India to respond positively to find a solution to the issue,” sys the APHC Chairman Abdul Gani Butt. Butt also calls for comprehensive efforts to resume dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve Kashmir issue peacefully.
    January 19: US Secretary of State Collin Powell welcomes the improving relations between Pakistan and India and says the standoff between India and Pakistan has eased since SAARC summit, as both sides are committed to a diplomatic solution of all the problems. “Based on my conversations in both Islamabad and New Delhi, I think things are improving,' Powell tells Fox News in a pre-recorded interview from Tokyo, where he is attending a conference on aid to Afghanistan. “I am encouraged that both President (Pervez) Musharraf and Prime Minister (Atal Behari) Vajpayee are committed to finding a political and diplomatic solution. “
    February 11: Senior Hurriyet leaders, camping in New Delhi, meet the diplomats from UK, France, Germany, Iran and Pakistan and are scheduled to interact with the senior US diplomats, a spokesman of APHC tell media. The Hurriyet leaders apprise the diplomats about the latest situation in occupied Kashmir and urge the world community to come forward for the peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue.
    March 8: Islamabad invites Indian Home Minister L K Advani to visit Pakistan and discuss all contentious issues. Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider extends the invitation during his meeting with Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj at the SAARC Information Ministers conference.
    March 9: The puppet regime in occupied Kashmir acknowledges that DNA samples taken from five men, blamed for the massacre of 35 Sikhs two years ago, have been tampered with. The Kashmiris say that the people whose samples have been sent for identification are among the innocent victims of this gory incident. The puppet Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah also says that it appears that fake samples have been sent suggesting, ' those responsible are hiding something.”
    March 26: Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, while speaking at a function in Himachal Pradesh says any talks with Pakistan would have to be held within the purview of the Shimla and the Lahore agreements. Washington says it accords top priority to India-Pak relations and the situation in Kashmir. White House Press Secretary Arie Fleischer says, because of tension between India and Pakistan, the peaceful resolution of any of the differences involving Kashmir, is important. He says, ”So it (Kashmir) is a top priority, it is something that the president has focused on, as well as the state department too, of course”.
    March 31: Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, renews a call for the resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue and says his government is ready for talks. Musharraf says that Kashmir issue should be resolved according to the wishes of Kashmiris and his government was ready for talks with India to work out a durable solution to it. He says this during his conversation with Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, Sikandar Hayat Khan in Islamabad.
    April 02: White House Press Secretary Arie Fleischer says that US President George W Bush is working hard with India and Pakistan to settle disputes that could worsen a volatile situation.
    April 05: The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Donald Camp says in Washington that United States believes that there is a real danger of military conflict in South Asia, but hopes that Pakistan and India would soon resume bilateral dialogue to discuss all issues, including Kashmir.
    April 09: Members of the lawyers delegation from Indian held Kashmir demand “freedom of movement across the Line of Control (LoC)” that divides Kashmir, and invite India and Pakistan to hold talks on Kashmir in Srinagar. They make this demand while addressing a gathering at Islamabad. Four valley-based lawyers are on tour of Pakistan to attend a lawyers' conference in Islamabad.
    April 11: The OIC Kashmir Contact Group in a meeting in Geneva affirms that a plebiscite under UN auspices to determine the wishes of the Kashmiri people could be the only viable basis for peaceful settlement of this dispute.
    April 16: “United States is ready to offer any help to India and Pakistan in resolving the Kashmir dispute provided both the countries want it”, American Ambassador to India Robert D Blackwill says in Chandigarh. 'Any solution on Kashmir has to be reached between India and Pakistan. We are not going to mediate on the issue until both countries ask us to do so. We are waiting for our phone to ring from both sides,' Blackwill adds.
    April 17: Kashmiri leaders from both sides of the line of control meet in Sharjah for the first time in several years and express optimism that the Kashmir issue can be solved through dialogue.
    April 24: The United States continues to work for peace in Kashmir and resolution of Indo-Pakistan differences despite the media focus on the West Asia, and the Bush administration achieves 'a nice bit of success' there, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer tells media. -'We are busily engaged in ... continuing to work towards peace involving Kashmir, and issues involving India and Pakistan, it has been a nice bit of success, it continues to be an important part of the world,' Fleischer says at a press briefing in Washington.
    April 27: APHC leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq terms the recent Dubai meeting a success where Kashmiri leaders discussed matters pertaining to resolution of Kashmir issue through comprehensive and peaceful negotiations.
    April 23: The World Bank in its latest report warns, Kashmir crisis can end in a nuclear exchange that will wreak enormous physical and economic devastation in both India and Pakistan.
    May 10: Reiterating the Hurriyet stand on so-called elections, Hurriyat Conference Chairman Abdul Ghani Butt makes it clear the APHC will not participate in the coming so-called assembly elections. Butt says elections are no solution to the Kashmir problem, which only purposeful tripartite talks can solve.
    May 15: Addressing a press conference in Islamabad US Assistant Secretary of the State Christina Rocca says Pakistan and India's military standoff is a major area of focus for the US administration. We would continue to work for the reduction of tension between India and Pakistan.
    May 16: American diplomat Christina Rocca ends a two-day visit to India for reducing the military standoff between the nuclear-armed rivals but reports little sign of progress. 'This is not the work of one trip. We're very worried about the continued mobilisation of two major armies facing each other at close proximity and the possibility of a spark that could lead to an unintended conflict,' Ms. Rocca says before leaving for Islamabad.
    May 18: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf reiterates in a function in Islamabad that Pakistan will continue diplomatic, political and moral support to the ongoing Kashmir freedom struggle in occupied Kashmir and would never abandon its principled stand on the matter.
    Initiating major diplomatic offensive against Pakistan, India gives a week time to Pakistan High Commissioner Ashraf Jahangir Qazi to leave the country.
    May 21: APHC leader Abdul Ghani Lone along with his bodyguard is shot dead while attending a ceremony commemorating the assassination of prominent Kashmiri leader, Mir Waiz Maulvi Farooq.
    Pakistan issues an angry condemnation of the cold-blooded murder of APHC leader Abdul Ghani Lone.
    May 24: The British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, in a statement calls Kashmir 'unfinished business' and stresses the question as to 'who should run Kashmir is never fully resolved'.
    Addressing a press conference in Srinagar Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee hints at opening a door when he says that the government has always been ready to talk to the Hurriyet. ''I am inviting them for talks,'' he says.
    US Secretary of State Colin Powell twice speaks to President Pervez Musharraf on telephone, expresses the dire urgency to de-escalate the extremely high tension between Pakistan and India.
    India resolves to order military strikes against what was described as militants based in Azad Kashmir unless Pakistan moves aggressively to dismantle “extremist organisations”. The decision is taken at a meeting of top Indian military and security officials in IHK attended by the Indian prime minister, defence minister and other cabinet members.
    May 28: Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, in his address to the nation on TV Radio assures the world community that no infiltration is taking pace across the LoC, but makes it quite clear that liberation movement is going on in occupied Kashmir and Pakistan cannot be held responsible for any action against the Indian tyranny and repression.
    The All Parties Hurriyet Conference Chairman, Professor Abdul Ghani Butt says that war is not a solution to the Kashmir problem but it would only complicate the issue.
    Leaders of NATO express concern about the conflict between India and Pakistan. French President Jacques Chirac after NATO meeting talking to reporters says we have to make a great effort to amicably pressure (India and Pakistan) to avoid the worst.
    May 29: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says Kashmir dispute could only be resolved through negotiations between Pakistan and India, and not through war or terrorism.
    June 7: Indian government decides to form a “Joint Task Force” (JTF) on the lines of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to coordinate with the puppet regime of occupied Kashmir to crush liberation struggle of Kashmiris.
    India rejects a Pakistani proposal for an international force to patrol the powder-keg region of Kashmir but says it is open to setting up a joint force with Pakistan.
    June 09: Syed Ali Geelani is arrested under POTA and shifted to the Ranchi central jail. His two son-in-laws, Altaf Fantoosh and Iftikhar Geelani are also arrested.
    June 11: India takes the first step towards de-escalation of Indo-Pak tensions by announcing lifting of the over six-month ban on over flights by Pakistani aircraft.
    June 14: Speaking at a joint press conference in Islamabad with Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Abdul Sattar, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says, the United States does not have any evidence of Al-Qaeda men being active in Kashmir. “We do have a good deal of intelligence from people who say they believed that Al-Qaeda men are in Kashmir, or are in various locations. However it tends to be speculative, it is not verifiable, it is not actionable.”
    June 12:  The United States is willing to play a role as 'facilitator of dialogue' between India and Pakistan but has no desire to mediate their long-running feud over Kashmir, Secretary of State Colin Powell says.
    June 17: India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee says Pakistan's promises -- not American pressure -- have prevented war between the South Asian rivals. In an interview with Dainik Jagran, Vajpayee also indicates that New Delhi stepped back from the option of armed conflict with Pakistan after a six-month standoff involving a million troops along the border.
    June 23: Omer Abdullah takes over from his father Farooq Abdullah to become the third generation of his family to lead pro-Indian National Conference.
    June 24: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir is another Palestine in the making. In an interview with British newspaper Independent he says the dangers can only be averted if we resolve the Kashmir dispute. President Pervez Musharraf says Kashmir is our national interest. Pakistan has always given moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris. LoC will not be accepted as international border. Autonomy for Kashmir is also not acceptable.
    June 26: Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) appeals India and Pakistan to exercise self-restraint and resolve Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN resolutions. Addressing the 29th session of OIC Foreign Ministers in Khartoum, Dr, Abdelouhahed Belkeziz offers its mediation and good offices to defuse tension and pave way for a dialogue between the two countries.
    June 28: The Three-day 29th session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM) in Khartoum reaffirms its support for the people of Jammu and Kashmir for their right to self-determination, in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions. The Conference calls for appointing a Special Representative of the OIC Secretary-General on Jammu and Kashmir, and for sending an OIC Fact Finding Mission to Jammu and Kashmir.
    India's interior ministry bans Kashmiri women's group Dukhtaran-e-Millat.
    July 05: Pakistan reiterates, Indian plan to hold elections in the held Kashmir as clearly against UN resolution, which stipulate that the final disposition of occupied Jammu and Kashmir would be in accordance with the will of the Kashmiri people through a free and impartial plebiscite.
    July 09: Amnesty International expresses fear that the four persons accused in the Indian Parliament attack case may not receive a fair trial.
    July 10: US Secretary of State Colin Powell tells the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee that the US is anxious to get through the Indo-Pak crisis “so that we can start to move forward to find a solution to the problem in Kashmir ultimately.”
    July 13: 29 people including eight women and a child are killed and over thirty five others injured, ten of them critically, when unknown armed men lob hand grenades and later open fire in Qasim Nafar area, at Narwal By-pass on the outskirts of Jammu.
    July 14: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference strongly condemns killings at Qasim Nagar in Jammu and expresses profound sorrow over the loss of innocent lives.
    July 18: The United States rejects Indian demands that Pakistan be put on the US list of terrorist states, calling Pakistan a stalwart ally in the fight against terrorism. US State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher reiterates this in a statement.
    The risk of a devastating conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir remains real despite recent steps by the nuclear-armed neighbours to ease tensions, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw saiys while speaking in Tokyo
    July 28: US Secretary of State Colin Powel in a news conference in New Delhi says that Kashmir is on the international agenda. The US would provide a helping hand to all sides in order to resolve the Kashmir issue.
    APHC welcomes US Secretary of State Colin Powell's call that India should free political prisoners and permit observers for the upcoming vote in occupied Kashmir, but held firm on their refusal to participate in the polls. Abdul Ghani Butt, the chairman of APHC tells AFP, “Powell is absolutely right that Kashmir is on the international agenda.”
    US Secretary of State Colin Powell in a news conference in Islamabad says, “its time to make regional stability permanent. Kashmir is on the international agenda."  Powell says India could boost confidence in Kashmir by freeing political prisoners and allowing independent observers to monitor the polls.
    The European Union (EU) Foreign Policy Chief, Javier Solana during a joint news conference in Islamabad with Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Inamul Haq says, "Elections are no permanent solution to the issue of Kashmir."
    July 31: The US State Department acting spokesman Phillipe Reeker during news briefing in Washington says, the Kashmir dispute must be resolved through a healthy political process and a vibrant dialogue between India and Pakistan that takes into account the wishes of the people of Kashmir.
    August 02: Talking to journalists in Colombo (Sri Lanka), Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf again calls on India to join Pakistan's efforts for finding a peaceful solution to the Kashmir dispute in line with the UN resolutions and wishes of Kashmiris.
    French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, addressing a joint press conference with Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha in New Delhi calls on India and Pakistan to resume dialogue to reduce tension between the two South Asian nuclear-armed rivals.
    Occupied Kashmir’s so-called assembly elections will be held in four phases, says Indian Chief Election Commissioner JM Lingdoh. The first phase of elections will be held on September 16, followed by the second on the September 24, third on October 1 and the fourth and last on October 8.
    August 3: A seven-member committee, headed by former Indian law minister, Ram Jethmalani, is formed to work for the de-escalation of Indo-Pak border tension and enter into dialogue with the Hurriyet conference and other pro-liberation groups to find an amicable solution to the crisis in Jammu and Kashmir.
    August 6: Indian troops in disguise lob grenades and open fire on pilgrims at the base camp of Amarnath Yatra at Nuwan in Pahalgam, killing at least 9 people and injuring 32 others.
    August 8: A five-member delegation of the European Union meets the All Parties Hurriyat Conference to discuss situation of IOK in the context of forthcoming assembly polls.
    August 11: Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, Digvijav Singh, rules out allowing foreign observers during the forthcoming assembly polls ploy in occupied Kashmir.
    August 14: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf vows that Pakistan will never compromise on the Kashmiris' right of self determination, and rejects polls in occupied Kashmir as a bid to legitimise India's illegal occupation. In a speech at a flag hoisting ceremony on the country's 55th Independence Day, Musharraf says referendum on Kashmiris' political destiny is the key to peace in South Asia.  “The struggle for self-determination of our Kashmiri brothers is a sacred trust that can never be compromised,” he said.
    August 17: Addressing a press conference after talks with APHC in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir Committee head, Ram Jethmalani said Kashmir is a disputed territory and needed immediate resolution. He says it would be foolish to claim that Kashmir is not a dispute. "The dispute exists and its resolution will bring peace to the entire South Asian region", he said
    August 22: Indian Kashmir Committee sends a formal invitation to the All Parties Hurriyat Conference for talks in New Delhi. The head of the Kashmir Committee, former federal law minister Ram Jethmalani, also writes Shabbir Shah for continuation of talks to find a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue.
    August 23: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference accepts an invitation for talks with Indian Kashmir Committee. "We have agreed to keep the talks going," says APHC leader Abdul Ghani Butt.
    August 25: Talking to reporters in Islamabad, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage says it is up to Pakistan and India to find a solution to the long-standing crisis over the disputed Kashmir. “We can offer assistance, we cannot impose a solution.”
    September 02: The French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin says, the non- resolution of the Kashmir dispute between two nuclear powers harbour incalculable risks for the entire planet.
    September 05: US says Kashmir is on international agenda the way it had never been before and that there is a lot of concern in the international community to resolve the issue. The Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage says this in an exclusive talk with team of editors and senior correspondents of Pakistan's national dailies visiting the US on the invitation of the State Department.
    September 06: All Party Hurriyet Conference (APHC) Chairman Abdul Ghani Butt says that APHC is ready to hold talks with the Indian leadership, provided similar opportunity is provided to them to meet leaders in Pakistan.
    September 07: The New Delhi Kashmir Committee supports the demand of the APHC to visit Pakistan for holding talks with Kashmiri leaders there and Pakistan government to pursue a dialogue for peace and a durable solution with Pakistani government and Kashmiri political leaders there," says a joint statement issued after a 150-minute meeting between Hurriyat Conference leaders and the Kashmir Committee in New Delhi.
    September 09: APHC chairman, Professor Abdul Ghani Butt rules out any move to convert the Line of Control into international border between India and Pakistan.
    Pakistan reiterates that any talks to resolve the long running Kashmir dispute has to be held at the official level between Islamabad and New Delhi and with the participation of the true representatives of Kashmiris.
    September 11: The Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs in the puppet regime, Mushtaq Ahmad Lone is shot dead in Lolab area of Kupwara district. Six of his security guards are also killed.
    September 12: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says the international community might have a role to play in resolution of the Kashmir issue if tension between India and Pakistan flares up again.  In his address before the General Assembly, Annan identifies the Kashmir issue as one of the four global problems after the Israel-Palestinian dispute, the Iraq problem, and the Afghanistan situation.
    September 13: Addressing the 57th session of the UNGA, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says, the people of Jammu and Kashmir must be allowed to exercise their right to determine their own future in accordance with the relevant resolutions of UN Security Council. He said three steps are required to avoid conflict and mutual withdrawal of forward deployed forces by both sides, observance of cease-fire along the LoC in Kashmir and cessation of India's state terrorism against the Kashmiri people.
    September 14: Indian National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra ticks off UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for his assessment on the situation in the Indian sub-continent, saying he does not agree with his views.
    Indian security authorities term all the 3397 polling booths in the Kashmir Valley either hypersensitive or sensitive and none of them falls in the normal category.
    The All Parties Hurriyet Conference spokesman rejects internal autonomy as a solution to the Kashmir problem.
    September 15: Addressing Asia Society in New York President Pervez Musharraf says that he would be forced out of power if he ever dropped the stipulation that Kashmir was the core dispute governing relations with archrival India. “No leader. No government of Pakistan can ever side step on the issue of Kashmir because the people of Pakistan, including each individual, is involved.
    Addressing members of the Congress from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee warns if the international community fails to persuade Pakistan to stop so-called cross-border terrorism, India would have to find its own way to achieve its objective
    September 16: A one-day strike to denounce the holding of so-called election of occupied Kashmir legislature cripples life in the disputed territory and low turn out mares the first phase of elections. Voting for first phase of so-called polls begins in Baramullah, Kupwara (except in Lolab constituency), Leh, Kargil, Rajouri and Poonch districts. Complete strike is observed in occupied Kashmir. People continue their boycott of the polls, however, several incidents of coercive voting is being observed.
    September 19: Speaking at the Kashmir Contact Group meeting of OIC, the All Parties Hurriyet Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq accuses the United Nations of helping in prolonging the disputes by placing greater emphasis on the reduction of tensions rather than the settlement of the core issues.
    Indian Congress President, Sonia Ghandi calls for final solution to Kashmir issue and says if the Indian government is really serious about Jammu and Kashmir, which is affecting the lives of innocent people, it should do something about it now."
    September 23: A total of 160 additional companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) are being deployed in various districts of Jammu and Kashmir on election duty during the second phase of so-called polling on September 24. These are in addition to the 237 companies of the CRFP already stationed in occupied Kashmir.
    September 24: Complete strike is observed throughout occupied Kashmir against the second phase of so-called assembly elections. Second phase of so-called poll is held in Srinagar, Budgam and Jammu districts.
    President Musharraf tells reporters in Islamabad that Pakistan is also not interested in parleys if India does not want to sort out the conflicting issues in an amicable manner. He terms Indian claim of 45% turnout in held Kashmir elections, as contrary to the facts and said there is only two to ten percent turnout.
    October 01: Complete protest strike is observed in occupied Kashmir against the third phase of so-called polls. The third phase of polls is held in Pulwama, Islamabad, Kathua and Udhampur. The observers term the turnout very low, as compared to the first two phases of polling.
    The APHC rules out Pakistan's role in any kind of violence in Kashmir and reiterates that Kashmiris struggle is indigenous. Hurriyat Conference chairman tells Indian daily the Hindu that so-called elections would not help in resolving the Kashmir problem.
    US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Christina Rocca meets Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad and calls for dialogue with India over the disputed Kashmir region.
    October 08: Normal life comes to a halt on the occasion of the 4th phase of so-called state assembly elections in occupied Kashmir. The polls are taking place in six constituencies of Doda district.
    October 09: At a press briefing in New York, a US state Department spokesman asks India and Pakistan to “find a way back to a dialogue” to resolve disputes in the region where prospects of a war, in which nuclear weapons could be used, looms large.
    October 16: India's apex Cabinet Committee on Security headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee decides to order a phased withdrawal of troops massed on Pakistan's borders. Announcing the cabinet decision, Indian Defence minister George Fernandes says, the armed forces would take their time to implement the process of withdrawal.
    October 17: Jammu and Kashmir is put under Governor's rule after caretaker puppet Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah refuses to take charge of the regime.
    October 18: Soon after the decision by India of withdrawing its troops from the borders, the US favours resumption of serious and sustained Indo-Pak dialogue on Kashmir and all other outstanding issues.
    Welcoming the announcements made by India and Pakistan that they would normalise the deployment of troops at border areas, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges the two countries to again try to resolve their differences through dialogue.
    Addressing a joint press conference along with President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad, Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Muhammad says the Kashmir issue should be resolved in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.
    October 23: India begins pullout of troops from along the international border with Pakistan and the whole process including de-mining operations would be completed within next two months, said Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes.
    October 25: Presiding over a meeting of the Azad Kashmir Council, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says the Indian troops' pull back had vindicated Pakistan's stance that all matters between the two countries, including the Kashmir issue, could be settled through bilateral dialogue.
    November 2: Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is sworn-in as the puppet chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
    Speaking in a PTV programme “Visitor's Book” the Director Policy Planning US State Department, Richard Haass says, United States has no secret plan for resolution of Kashmir issue and it should be resolved among India, Pakistan and people of Kashmir.
    November 7: Talking to group of journalists in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Muhammad urges the United Nations to get its resolution implemented on Kashmir in order to resolve the half a century old problem between India and Pakistan.
    November 14: Two leaders of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference, Bashir Ahmad Butt and Shaikh Abdur Rashid are released from Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu but are re-arrested by the intelligence agencies personnel. The re-arrested leaders are being kept confined in joint interrogation cell in Jammu.
    November 15: Britain says, the Kashmir problem between India and Pakistan has stemmed out of some quite serious mistakes committed by it by not demarcating the boundaries even two days after Independence of India and Pakistan from the British rule. “We made some quite serious mistakes. We were complacent with what happened in Kashmir, the boundaries were'nt published until two days after Independence. Bad story for us, the consequences are still there,” Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says in an interview to the New Statesman magazine.
    November 16: Two pro-liberation organisations, National Front and Jammu-based People's Movement are inducted in the All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC).
    November 21: Canada offers to mediate between India and Pakistan, if the two countries are willing, to facilitate resumption of stalled dialogue between them. Speaker of the Senate Daniel Hays tells reporters in New Delhi.
    November 22: Indian Kashmir Committee holds another round of inconclusive talks with pro-liberation leadership in Srinagar with its leader Ram Jethmalani ruling out the option of independence and Shabbir Shah claiming that six member delegation has accepted the disputed nature of Kashmir.
    November 24: Heavily armed men storm the Raghunath temple, killing at least 15 persons, including four women and two military personnel, and injuring around 50 others.
    November 26: The United States believe that Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory and it must be “resolved through negotiations”, between India and Pakistan keeping in view the wishes of Kashmiri people, a paper on India-US relations released says. The paper prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), said, “The longstanding US position on Jammu and Kashmir is that the whole of the former princely State is disputed territory."
    November 30: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf reiterates Pakistan's principled stand on Kashmir issue and says Pakistan government will continue its political, moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri brethren in their ongoing freedom struggle. He states this while talking to Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minster, Sardar Sikandar Hayyat Khan in Islamabad.
    December 3: Expressing concern over the continued human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, the Amnesty International, in an open letter urges the puppet Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed to allow independent experts, including from United Nations, to visit the occupied Kashmir.
    December 5: In their separate Eid messages, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali reaffirm political, moral and diplomatic support to Kashmiris in their struggle for self-determination.
    December 10: The Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Human Rights Front, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo sets himself on fire at Red Cross Road in Lal Chowk area of Srinagar to protest against the stepped up Indian brutalities in occupied Kashmir. However, the Indian police personnel manage to douse the fire and detain him in Kothibagh police station. He sustains serious burn wounds on different parts of his body.
    December 16: Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarulah Khan Jamali asks India to review its intransigent attitude towards Pakistan and initiate dialogue for the resolution of all outstanding issues.
    December 17: After a two-hour meeting with Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Christina Rocca, said in Islamabad that Washington would remain committed and engaged in bringing about a Pakistan-India dialogue.
    December 18: A Delhi Court awards death sentence under draconian law POTA to three Kashmiris, Muhammad Afzal, Showkat Hassan Guru and a university lecturer, Syed Abdul Rehman Gilani, falsely charged for attack on Indian parliament on December 13 last year. Showkat's wife Afshan Guru was charged with what was described as concealing the so-called plot. She is sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment. The All Parties Hurriyet Conference has strongly denounced the verdict.
    December 19: Amnesty International is dismayed at the death sentences handed down to three people accused of the 13 December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament. "The death penalty is a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment," Amnesty International said. "We oppose the death penalty unconditionally, whether it is imposed on alleged criminals or on so-called terrorists," the international human rights organisation said.
    December 20: Normal life is paralysed in Kashmir Valley on Friday following a strike organised by the Human Rights Forum to protest the death sentence to three Kashmiri youth in the false case regarding Parliament attack.
    December 24: Iranian President Muhammad Khatami tells reporters at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Mir Zafarulah Jamali in Islamabad, “We will do everything possible to remove tensions and to work for peace and understanding between the two sides (India and Pakistan).
    December 29: US expresses hope that the New Year will usher in resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan on all contentious issues, including Kashmir." US Secretary of State Colin Powell says in an interview to the CNN.
    In an interview with Indian daily the Asian Age, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri dismisses Indian stand that it would involve only elected representatives in the talks to restore peace in Kashmir. He said, “the talks need not to be exclusive and can involve all shades of opinion, in power or out of power.”
    December 30: In his new year's message from the coastal state of Goa, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee reiterates India's intransigent stand that it would never give up Kashmir and calls on Pakistan to abandon what he calls its futile policy on the disputed region. 
    2003
    July 06: President Pervez Musharraf says progress towards normalization of relations with India is inseparably linked to movement towards resolutions of the Kashmir dispute. “I have made it clear during my talks abroad that unless Kashmir is discussed, there cannot be any movement forward towards normalization of relations between Pakistan and India,” Musharraf says this while talking to journalists on his return from tour of Britain, the US, Germany and France.
    July 07: Britain offers to mediate in resolving the Kashmir issue if both India and Pakistan agree. British High Commissioner to Pakistan Mark Lyall Grant says his country could render help and support both the countries financially and diplomatically.  "We would be glad to help if the two governments agree. We have a role to play as do the other members of the international community and are encouraged by the steps taken by the leadership of both the sides to normalise situation in the region," Grant says in an interview. 
    July 09: The Police sources in occupied Kashmir reveal that more than 90,000 persons have been killed in the state since January 1990 to December 2002. This figure has been published in the souvenir entitled "Moments of Honour" brought out by Jammu and Kashmir police.
    July 11: India and Pakistan resume bus service after 18 months. The All Parties Hurriyet Conference welcomes the resumption of Delhi-Lahore bus service and says that the alliance would not raise any heckles, if New Delhi and Islamabad start with trade, cultural and other ties before discussing the Kashmir issue. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq says, “Nobody can deny the fact that sooner or later Kashmir issue has to be resolved."
    July 12: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC) elects Maulana Abbas Ansari, leader of the Ittehadul Muslimeen, as its new chairman. He replaces Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat of Muslim Conference.
    July 16: The new APHC chairman Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari says, the alliance is not averse to United States' role as a friend in resolving the Kashmir issue. He also suggests Iran and former South African President Nelson Mandela could act as 'facilitators.' “US mediation on Kashmir issue is welcome if they want to help us as a friend,” he says this while talking to reporters after chairing the first executive council meeting in Srinagar.
    July 17: Welcoming the visible improvement in relations between India and Pakistan, APHC seeks reopening of the road between Srinagar and Rawalpindi, saying it would reinforce the process of reconciliation between the two nuclear powers. Talking to media persons after concluding a special session of its executive council, APHC chairman Maulana Abbas Ansari welcomes the resumption of diplomatic ties and cultural exchange between India and Pakistan.
    July 20: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference says the conversion of the de facto frontier between India and Pakistan in Kashmir into a permanent border will not resolve the longstanding dispute. “We do not believe that converting the LoC into a permanent border or granting autonomy (to Kashmir) will resolve the issue,” the APHC says in a press statement.
    July 26: Senior Kashmiri leader, Syed Ali Geelani says Kashmiris would accept any alternative solution that New Delhi may suggest provided it reflects the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Geelani says this while addressing a public rally at Tral.
    July 27: The two-day International Kashmir Peace Conference, an attempt to find common ground between India and Pakistan for peace in the troubled region, concludes in Washington DC with a call for an intra-Kashmiri dialogue and humanitarian assistance for the people in the Valley. Participants to a roundtable on the concluding day feel there is a need to contact the leaders on both sides of the Line of Control even before the expected talks between India and Pakistan.
    August 01: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf addressing the concluding session of a four-day conference of Pakistan's ambassadors from 20 capitals says, Pakistan will not allow the Kashmir issue to be sidelined in its dialogue with India. He says, Pakistan would continue its efforts for a peaceful solution of the dispute in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
    August 09: Chairman of Indian Kashmir Committee, Ram Jethmalani says resolution of the Kashmir issue is possible only on a give-and-take basis and "if both the sides stick to their traditional stance, they may lose the chance to bring peace in the region." Talking to Pakistan daily, The Nation, Jethmalani says this is the best time for both countries to have dialogue and settle their issues amicably. 
    August 10: Declaring that dialogue was the only viable way to solve Kashmir dispute, Indian Kashmir Committee Chief Ram Jethmalani says Kashmir is not the integral part of India. He says this while talking to the reporters at a luncheon reception in Islamabad.
    August 12: Parliamentarians, politicians, policy experts and journalists of India and Pakistan in their joint declaration urge both the countries to resolve the Kashmir dispute on priority basis.
    Interacting with the visiting Indian delegation of parliamentarians and senior editors at the Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad, President General Pervez Musharraf offers to facilitate a ceasefire inside occupied Kashmir if India reduces its troops in the territory, stops atrocities against innocent Kashmiris and allows political activities and free travel.
    August 13: US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage says that Kashmir, apart from Israel and Palestine, is the "most dangerous place in the world." He says this in response to a specific question after his lecture at the Asia Society Austral-Asia Centre in Neena Bhandari, Sydney.
    August 14: Addressing the flag hoisting ceremony to mark Pakistan's 56th Independence Day, Prime Minister Mir Zafarrullah Kahn Jamali says, durable peace in South Asia and normal Pak-India relations hinge on the just solution to Kashmir problem.
    August 25: India cannot bypass Pakistan in any arrangements of dialogues with the leadership of held Kashmir for the resolution of Kashmir dispute, warns the Spokesman of Pakistan's Foreign Ministry in a weekly press briefing in Islamabad.
    August 27: In occupied Kashmir, crippling protest strike is observed on the arrival of Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Srinagar. The troops arrest a large number of people.
    September 02: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri tells reporters in Islamabad that Pakistan has not made any shift in its Kashmir policy and “we stick to our principled position”.
    September 07: A no-confidence motion against APHC chairman is adopted at the joint meeting of the Executive and General Councils of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference, held in Srinagar.
    September 09: 10 Kashmiri youth are sentenced to life imprisonment under draconian law, TADA. A so-called TADA court in Jammu announces the sentence.
    September 10: Finding a solution to the Kashmir issue continues to be a top priority for Britain, and it will continue to play an effective role in bringing India and Pakistan closer for holding talks, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw says. "It's very important that we work towards reducing tensions on both sides, we have to have a dialogue between the nations," the Online news agency quotes him as saying.
    September 14: Senior APHC leader, Syed Ali Gilani, is unanimously elected Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference at an extraordinary joint session of the APHC Executive and General Council in Srinagar.            
    September 16: United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan hopes that sustained dialogue between India and Pakistan will lead to peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir. In a brief reference to the subcontinent in his report to the General Assembly, Annan expresses the view that relations between India and Pakistan have improved.
    September 20: There are no signs of improvement in the human rights situation in occupied Kashmir under the ruling People's Democratic Party-led coalition, joint fact-finding committee of Association for Democratic Rights, Punjab, Human Rights Forum, Andhra Pradesh and Organisation for Protection of Democratic Rights say in a booklet entitled 'Kashmir - an enquiry into the healing touch'.
    September 22: Pakistan asks the United Nations to play a more active role in resolving the lingering Kashmir dispute; saying only issuing supportive statements is not enough. Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan says, the world body has been pro-active in many other areas but not in the case of Kashmir.
    September 22: Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, warns the world leaders against equating Islam with terrorism and urges recognition of legitimate armed resistance movements in the Palestinian territories and Kashmir. In his keynote address at the international conference on “Fighting Terrorism for Humanity” he says, most deadly form of terrorism is state terrorism, which targets people seeking freedom from foreign occupation. Holding Indian policies in occupied Kashmir as an example, he says “while (India) persists its violent suppression of the Kashmiri people, they have a legitimate right to resist Indian occupation.
    September 23: The designated court under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act (TADA) acquits JKLF chairman, Malik Muhammad Yasin, of the charges of receiving money from former administrative officer, Jehlum Valley College of Medical Sciences, Professor Sheikh Ghulam Muhammad.
    September 24: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference, (APHC) asks the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to take notice of "state terrorism to which people of Jammu & Kashmir are being subjected." APHC in a letter to UN Secretary General and other heads of state urges them to get implemented UN resolutions on Kashmir.
    President Pervez Musharraf proposes a series of measures to resolve the Kashmir dispute and invites India to join Pakistan in a sustained dialogue to find a just solution acceptable to India, Pakistan, and above all the Kashmir people. Addressing the UN General Assembly's special session he says, India continues to suppress the legitimate struggle of Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self-determination in accordance with the UNSC resolutions.
    India's foreign minister rejects Pakistan's invitation for talks on Kashmir, describing the disputed Himalayan territory as an "inalienable part of India." Yaswant Sinha makes his comments to university students in New York, shortly after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf broached the idea during his address to the UN General Assembly.
    September 30: Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), once again reiterates its categorical support to Kashmiris' struggle for their right of self-determination. The OIC Contact Group on Kashmir unanimously adopts a resolution, stressing upon India to stop repression against freedom activists in occupied Kashmir, withdraw black laws, immediately free Kashmiri detainees and end travel restrictions on Hurriyet Conference leaders.
    October 01: Speaking at the OIC's annual coordination meeting in New York, Pakistan ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram expresses concern over the increase in Indian repression against Kashmiri people. He says, there has been no forward movement in resolving outstanding difference between Pakistan and India, especially over Occupied Kashmir.
    Pakistan Prime Minster Mir Zaffarullah Khan Jamali while addressing a news conference in Washington after his meeting with President Bush at the White House says, Bush assured him that the United States will continue to play an important role in the revival of Pak-India dialogue process.
    October 06: Reacting to Vajpayee's speech at the UN General Assembly, Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali says, it is up to the Indian leaders to decide how they would respond to positive overtures by Pakistan to normalise relations with it. He says the struggle in Kashmir is totally indigenous.
    October 14: During his visit to Bihar, Indian Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, rules out any presence of Al-Qaeda in occupied Kashmir.
    October 15: Indian government denies permission to APHC Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani to travel abroad to attend the summit of Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) at Putrajaya, Malaysia, but allows Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to attend the International Jurisprudence Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
    Addressing the OIC summit in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Secretary General OIC Abdelouahed Belkeziz demands right to self-determination for the Kashmiri people and urges India to allow OIC delegation to inspect the situation in Occupied Kashmir.
    October 16: Addressing the summit of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Putrajaya, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf reiterates Pakistan's support for Kashmiris just struggle. He says, plight of the people of Occupied Kashmir is a core Islamic cause and asserted that Pakistan would never submit to Indian military coercion or blackmail. He demanded right of self- determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
    October 17: India bars access of the United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to the Line of Control in Occupied Kashmir making it clear that it visualises no role for the world body in the issue.
    October 19: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia agree on the need for immediate resolution of Kashmir dispute through negotiations in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions. A joint statement issued at the end of Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's two-day visit to Islamabad says, the two sides emphasize the need for a sustained dialogue between Pakistan and India to resolve all outstanding issues, leading to normalization of situation in South Asia.
    October 21: APHC pays glowing tributes to the martyrs of Bijbehara and Zaldagar.
    October 22: The APHC Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani refuses to enter into a dialogue with New Indian points-man and Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, saying before any talks Indian should accept Kashmir as dispute and include Pakistan in the dialogue process.
    October 22: To normalize relations with Pakistan, India offers raft of measures ranging from full sporting ties to increased transport and maritime links. The proposals unveiled by Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha after a cabinet meeting in New Delhi, include starting of bus services between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad.
    October 27: Kashmiris living on both sides of Line of Control and elsewhere in the world observe Black Day against the invasion on Kashmir and occupation of major part of it by Indian troops on October 27, 1947.
    October 29: Pakistan accepts those Indian proposals, which were rational making it clear that a genuine peace process requires progress on all issues including the core Kashmir dispute. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar expresses hope that discussions on the Confidence Building Measures (SBMs) would lead New Delhi to resume sustained and composite dialogue with Islamabad on all contentious issues, notably the Kashmir dispute.
    Two accused in Indian Parliament attack case, lecturer S A R Geelani and a woman Afshan Guru, are acquitted by the New Delhi High Court. Earlier both the accused had been awarded death sentence by a POTA court. The death sentence awarded to other two accused, Muhammad Afzal and Shaukat Hussain Guru, is upheld by the High Court.
    November 01: Addressing a press conference in Washington US State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher hopes the process of Pakistan-India proposals, will create a momentum towards peace and said the US believes that the process needs to result in talks, in a dialogue that includes all the issues including Kashmir.
    November 02: Chairman of Indian Kashmir Committee and former Union Minister Ram Jethmalani says, the Indian government is not serious about normalising relations with Pakistan. Addressing a function in Banglore he calls for immediate resumption of talks between the two neighbours to settle all the outstanding issues.
    November 03: The National Assembly of Pakistan sets up 26-member special committee, including prominent figures from the ruling coalition and opposition parties to promote Kashmiris' right to self-determination at home and abroad.
    November 05: Speaking to Pakistan Parliamentary Group in the House of Commons in London, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri expresses readiness to enter into bilateral, tri-lateral or multi-lateral talks with India to resolve their outstanding differences, including Kashmir issue.
    November 11: Addressing the SAARC Information Ministers conference in New Delhi, Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmad urges SAARC countries to let the forum take up political issues dogging member states.
    November 13: India cancels all flights to and from Srinagar to prevent senior Kashmir Hurriyet leader Syed Ali Geelani from visiting New Delhi to meet Information Minister Sheikh Rashid and attend Iftar-dinner hosted by Pakistan High Commissioner, Aziz Ahmad Khan.
    November 18: Addressing an Iftar-dinner in Rawalpindi, Federal Minister for Information, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad says, all routes of peace between India and Pakistan pass through Kashmir and settlement of Kashmir dispute is in the best interest of both the countries.
    November 21: Addressing the 3,000-strong Jumatul Vida congregation at Masjid Baitul Mukaram, Syed Ali Gilani stresses on his suggestion that India must directly talk to Pakistan to seek the lasting solution of the Kashmir problem. He says, Pakistan is the primary party to the dispute and no solution could be found until that country is associated with the peace process right from the beginning.
    November 22: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution for the peoples' right to self-determination, ignoring India's strong objections. The resolution is passed by an 88-3 vote. The three countries objecting to the resolution in which Pakistan had taken a lead role were India, Mauritius and Bhutan.
    November 23: In his address to nation, Prime Minister Mir Zaffarullah Khan Jamali announces unilateral ceasefire along the Line of Control and expresses his willingness to start a bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad.
    India promises to respond positively to Pakistan's announcement of a unilateral ceasefire along the Line of Control. In a terse statement, external affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna also offers a ceasefire in Siachen. Islamabad responds with a statement by its foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri that Pakistan's ceasefire offer extends to the entire Kashmir region, which included the Siachen glacier.
    November 25: A ceasefire between India and Pakistan on the Line of Control, Working Boundary and Line of Actual Contact in Siachen becomes effective. Modalities for giving effect to the truce are worked out after a hotline contact between the Director General Military Operations (DGMOs) of Pakistan and India earlier in the day.
    The United States welcomes the ceasefire by India and Pakistan saying it hopes more moves towards peace are on the way. Secretary of State Colin Powell calls Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri and Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha to congratulate them on the ceasefire.
    November 27: European Union External Relations Commissioner, Chris Patten says in New Delhi that European Union is willing to offer any assistance to carry forward the Indo-Pak dialogue if India wants so.
    United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warmly welcomes Pakistan's decision to implement a unilateral ceasefire along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and India's positive response to the offer." In his statement, Annan also offers his own help in this regard.
    November 28: The EU welcomes the ceasefire recently by Pakistan and India as a further step towards the normalisation of India-Pakistan relations, a joint statement in this regard is issued at the end of the fourth round of the India-EU summit.
    Talking to newsmen in New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, says he hopes the ceasefire between India and Pakistan will continue and will help create a conducive atmosphere between the two neighbours.
    November 29: President General Pervez Musharraf announces Pakistan's readiness to go beyond its stated position in disputes with India, as he declares to unilaterally remove ban on the Indian over flights.
    India welcomes Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's announcement that his country will lift the ban on Indian flights over its airspace and grant them landing rights and hoped that the two-day talks on resumption of civil aviation links would be fruitful.
    December 01: President of Libya, Muammar Qaddafi, says the definitive solution of the Kashmiri problem lies in the independence of Kashmir, reports Greater Kashmir.
    December 02: Talking to BBC, Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf says his country will pull back all its troops from the disputed region of Kashmir if India agrees to do the same.
    December 06: Talking to the Asian Age, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri indicates that the eight-point agenda finalised by foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan in June 1997 could be acceptable as the basis for talks on Kashmir.
    December 07: European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana expresses hope that peace moves between India and Pakistan were a step to addressing the legitimate aspirations of the people of Kashmir.
    Five British MPs table a resolution in House of Commons in United Kingdom demanding the implementation of the UN resolution for self-determination in Kashmir.
    December 08: Talking to BBC Afghan President Hamid Karzai says Kashmir issue should be resolved through dialogue so the people of Kashmir, Pakistan and India could get relief, peace and happiness.
    December 09: The International Crisis Group says despite ceasefire in Kashmir, the potential for yet another violent crisis in South Asia looms large.
    December 11: AFP quoting the Asian Age reports that US delegation comprising ex-ambassadors Frank Wisner, Nicholas Platt and retired State Department official Dennis Kux, in a report advised against making disputed Kashmir border into a permanent frontier, urging for a solution that "humiliates" neither Islamabad nor New Delhi.
    December 12: Speaking to members of Karachi Council on Foreign Relations Economic Affairs and Law British Minister Mike O'Brien calls for durable solution of Kashmir issue.
    December 13: In an interview to "The Financial Times" US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage says Pakistan and India are in better situation with the ceasefire at the Kashmir line of Control.
    December 13: Addressing a seminar organised by Hindustan Times in New Delhi, president US Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass says India and Pakistan should bridge differences to resolve Kashmir issue to ensure peace.
    December 18: President Pervez Musharraf says Pakistan is ready to put aside its demand for a referendum in occupied Kashmir. Pakistan's long-standing position has been that a referendum should decide if the divided territory becomes part of Pakistan or India.
    December 19: Addressing a press conference in New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan advises Pakistan and India to display sustained engagement and "flexibility and creativity" to resolve the Kashmir issue. Annan suggests India and Pakistan to display sustained engagement and "flexibility and creativity" to resolve the Kashmir issue.
    December 23: The Indian Cabinet Committee on Security clears the Army's proposal for raising six Territorial Army battalions in J & Kashmir to keep a vigil on the LoC, a Defence ministry spokesman says in New Delhi.
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