Pakistan was the first to remove special status from its part of Kashmir, writes Om Prakash Shabbi – and it is time both India and Pakistan accepted the line of control as an international border between the two countriesOne factor largely missing from your report on Kashmir (‘Our identity has been robbed’: life in Kashmir after a year of crisis, 5 August) is that not just India but both India and Pakistan accorded special status to their respective parts of Kashmir as a result of UN resolutions. Pakistan, however, was the first to backtrack: first in 1963 when, under the Sino-Pakistan Agreement, it ceded a large portion of Kashmir’s territory to China, and then in May 2018 when it removed the special status accorded to Gilgit-Baltistan, thereby enabling China to build an economic corridor through the disputed territory (Gilgit-Baltistan) of Kashmir. Now that both India and Pakistan have abolished Kashmir’s special status, is it not time that they ended the conflict by accepting the current line of control in Kashmir as an international border between the two countries? Om Prakash ShabbiJalandhar, Punjab, India• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

Source: The Guardian August 06, 2020 17:06 UTC