120 Whither Kashmir? (Part II) - Islamabad Policy Research Institute

Whither Kashmir?
INDIA’S SILENT AGGRESSION
India maintains a huge military machine in Occupied Kashmir, much
larger than the United States and its allies, put together, have in Iraq and
Afghanistan. In there, its three-quarters of a million troops are perhaps
out number any such expeditionary force stationed in an occupied or
disputed area since the Second World War. On the face of it, the
deployment is tasked to deal with freedom fighters, which of course is a
daunting challenge, but more importantly, it is there to change the face of
the Muslim-majority landscape called Kashmir; its main weapon being
brutal use of force against unarmed civilian population. But where its
work goes almost unnoticed is the security it provides to Indian
engineers, who are planning and working day and night to build dams on
rivers that take water to Pakistan. So furiously are they working and in
such so-far inaccessible areas that of late, New Delhi is thinking of
bringing these projects under the enhanced protection cover of the
Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). All this work falls within the
definition of an aqua war India is preparing to foist on Pakistan, courtesy
a Chanakiya manoeuvre to ‘turn Pakistan into a desert’. Not that
Pakistanis are not aware of Indian designs; there is plenty of information
how India is trying to dam up rivers Jhelum, Chenab and Indus, whose
waters under the Indus Water Treaty should reach Pakistan
uninterrupted. According to reports, India is planning or building some
three dozen big and small hydropower projects and reservoirs on the
tributaries of these principal rivers, including quite a few mega-projects,
keeping Pakistan completely un-informed or misinformed.
One of these is Bursar Dam on River Chenab, for which New
Delhi has invited bids for a ‘topographical survey’. Others in different
stages of planning/construction include Kishenganga on River Neelam,
Uri Todium on River Pooch, which is tributary for River Jhelum and;
the Baglihar, Dul Husti and Salal dams on River Chenab. On River
Indus, the Indian engineers are working to steal water at Kargil and from
its 12 distributaries. Not content with depriving Pakistan of its waters
from Kashmir, the Indians have recently stepped up their aid-assisted
work in Afghanistan on two dams on River Kabul, which is a tributary
of River Indus. Yes, Pakistanis know all this - and much more, given the
fact that the growing water shortages are causing problems that have
begun negatively impacting provincial harmony, power generation and
industrial production. As Irsa stood bitterly divided over the opening of
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