Kashmiris in Pakistan and both parts of the Kashmir valley marked the 73rd anniversary Wednesday of a U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolution that established their right to self-determination.
On this day in 1947, the UNSC committed that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute would be decided through a free and fair plebiscite. Pakistan on the occasion called for the resolution of the long-running dispute in accordance with the UNSC resolution.
"Today marks the 73rd anniversary of the adoption of UNSC Resolution 47, which clearly establishes the right to self-determination of people of Jammu and Kashmir to be exercised through the democratic method of a fair and impartial plebiscite," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It is unfortunate that this inalienable right has still not been given to Kashmiris to date, it added. "We once again underscore the need to peacefully resolve the J&K dispute in accordance with Resolution(19)47 and other relevant UNSC resolutions," the statement said, referring to at least 17 resolutions and memorandums adopted by the Security Council and the General Assembly during the last 73 years.
The picturesque valley has been a key bone of contention between Pakistan and India, two nuclear rivals that have fought three full-scale wars – two of them over Kashmir in 1948 and 1965 – in addition to the three-week Kargil skirmish in 1999.
Already fraught relations between India and Pakistan further flared up when New Delhi scrapped special provisions of the disputed valley in August 2019. The region from 1954 until Aug. 5, 2019, enjoyed a special status under the Indian Constitution which allowed it to enact its own laws.
The provisions also protected the region's citizenship law, which barred outsiders from settling in and owning land in the territory. Both countries hold Kashmir in parts but claim it in full. China also controls a small sliver of the contested region.
Some Kashmiri groups have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or unification with neighboring Pakistan. According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have been killed and tortured in the conflict which flared up in 1989.
