PAKISTAN-INDIA WATER ISSUES – HOW INDIA STOPPED WATER IN PAKISTAN's CANALS IN 1948
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After partition in 1947, the water system was also bifurcated between Pakistan n India.
India cheated Pakistan when on April 1, 1948, India suddenly n without warning stopped... 1/n
...the supply of waters flowing into Pakistan's Central Bari Doab and Dipalpur Canals.
The boundary award on the partition of the sub-continent had left the headworks of these canals in Indian territory, and in accepting it India had implied her willingness to leave...
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...the historic distribution of common waters undisturbed.
India's action was therefore in flagrant disregard not only of international law n morality, but of her solemn commitments with Pakistan and a gross violation of this country's historical rights over common waters.
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Faced with a threat of utter desolation of millions of acres of fertile land, Pakistan had perforce to sign a document with India in which she agreed to "India's progressively diminishing water supplies to these canals and to the West Punjab government's tapping...
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...alternative resources".
A specific reservation was made in the document with regard to India's claim that she had full property rights over waters flowing into her territory, and could therefore use them as she liked.
The issue was, however, to be examined...
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... separately, but Pakistan's repeated efforts to induce India to submit it either to the International Court of Justice or to any other impartial tribunal met with failure.
So a deadlock ensued.
It was in 1951 that the World Bank offered its good offices to solve...
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...the impasse.
It tried to find a practical solution on the basis of a joint exploitation of the waters of the Indus basin. But after exhaustive negotiations with India and Pakistan it came to the conclusion that the divergence of views between the two countries...
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...was such that a solution of the dispute on these lines was impossible.
The Bank, therefore, directed its efforts to finding a solution.
Accordingly in 1954 the Bank made a broad proposal which stipulated that the waters of the eastern rivers—Sutlej, Beas and Ravi—...
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... should be available to India and those of the western rivers—Chenab, Indus and Jhelum —be assigned to Pakistan.
Both Pakistan and India accepted the proposals in 1956.
In the meanwhile, however, India was going ahead with the construction of engineering works...
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... that could enable her to divert the supplies of the eastern rivers.
In fact in 1957 she gave notice that she would stop water supplies from the eastern rivers to Pakistan in 1962.
However things changed as President Ayub Khan assumed power in Pakistan as he pushed...
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... forward the negotiations towards conclusions before India could act.
After many sessions of of talks, finally Indian Prime Minister Nehru and Pakistani President Ayub Khan signed
the Indus Waters Treaty on 19 Sep 1960 in Karachi.
THE LAST PRINCESS OF LAHORE - BAMBA DULEEP SINGH (1869 - 1957)
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Post partition, every morning a weak old woman would board the Model Town bus service headed to the city. The conductor never asked her for money or he would invite anger of the last Queen of Punjab.
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Princess Bamba Sutherland, the eldest daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh and grand-daughter of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was born on Sep 29, 1869, in London.
Duleep Singh, the last Maharaja of Punjab was taken away to England by British after annexing Punjab.
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Since he was still a child he was forcibly converted to Christianity and made to adopt British values in order to prevent him from ever thinking about regaining Punjab.
He was also kept away from his mother Maharani Jindan.
When he finally met his mother years later...
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THE GILGIT REBELLION - 1947
(Excerpts from the book by Maj William A Brown)
Dedicated to the brave & gallant people of GB
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In Peshawar, enroute for Chitral, Maj Brown was told by Lt Col Roger Bacon, then Political Agent in Gilgit, that the Viceroy Lord Mountbatten... 1/
... had decided (for reasons which were not clear to Bacon and which are still not clear) that the 1935 British lease of the Gilgit Agency from the Maharaja of J & K (a lease which still had 49 yrs to run) was going to be terminated and that the Agency, with a 99% Muslim ...
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... population was going to be returned to the Hindu rule of the Dogra Maharaja, Sir Hari Singh.
On 1 Aug 1947, charge of the Gilgit Agency was handed over to the Kashmir State.
It soon became apparent that the whole country, from the Rulers of the small States of Hunza...
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On 30 Mar 1867, US Secy of State, William H. Seward agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 mn (Equals $113 mn today; much less than cost of a Boeing 777 which is $320.2 mn).
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With a stroke of pen, Tsar Alexander II ceded Alaska, his country’s last remaining foothold in North America, to USA.
Although, there were and still are many who justified his action. The circumstances of 19th century prompted him to take such step. In US, critics thought...
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... Seward was crazy and called the deal "Seward's folly." Seward was laughed at for his willingness to spend much on an ‘icebox’.
US Senate however ratified the treaty that approved the purchase by just ONE VOTE.
Ultimately, buying Alaska proved to be a very good move.
Siliguri Corridor, also known as India’s ‘Chicken's Neck’, is 200 km long n 60 km wide. It is a vulnerable artery in India’s geography and is only medium to connect 7 North-eastern States to rest of India.
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The troubled Northeast region of India has many political issues from within including SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS and comprises of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim – a region surrounded Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and China.
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If Siliguri Corridor is captured by China, it can geographically isolate those states from mainland. All major trade and supply (both civilian and military) routes from Mainland India to the North East exist via this corridor.
On 28 Sep 2008, COAS, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani while talking to command elements of Army and FC in Bajaur Scouts Operations Room at Khar, termed 'Operation Sherdil' a watershed operation, both for the Army and Pakistan.
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Operation commenced on 6 Sep 08, coinciding with Defence Day. Operation Sherdil as it unfolded turned out to be a large scale Battle for Bajaur.
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(former DG ISPR @peaceforchange was then commanding his unit, 87 Medium, as a Lt Col)
Though the Operation was launched by 26 Brigade on 6 Sep, significance of 6 Aug 08 cannot be overlooked, as the day triggered a series of events which led to re-orientation of 26 Brigade towards Bajaur. Therefore in actual sense Operation Sherdil had begun on 6 Aug 08.