India strongly protested Pakistan’s new Bhasha dam on the Indus River saying that the construction will inundate large parts of land in Northern Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). India said that the inundation of the Indian state violated its borders. Pakistan rejected the protest saying that J&K was a disputed territory and cited numerous United Nations resolutions to that effect. At the time of Indian Independence in 1947, the erstwhile king of J&K (Hari Singh) vacillated between joining India and Pakistan because his majority Muslim population wanted to join India and since he did not get along with the Indian leadership, he wanted to join Pakistan. The indecisive Singh asked for a Standstill Agreement with both countries, which Pakistan accepted readily. However, Pakistan financially and materially funded a tribal invasion led by serving Pakistani officers and soldiers on annual leave. When the invading party took over large parts of his territory, Singh asked for help from India, which agreed only if he were to accede to India, which he eventually did. Indian commandos were airlifted, tanks climbed large heights to flank the rebels and the Pakistani army. In January 1948, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru disregarded military advice and announced a unilateral ceasefire and took the case to the United Nations (UN). The UN Security Council (UNSC) asked both India and Pakistan to not change the ground situation “materially.” A year later, Pakistan accepted that it had moved in new brigades into J&K and have therefore violated the UNSC direction. Thereafter, after the defeat of Pakistan in the Bangladesh war in 1971, it agreed through the Simla Agreement not to involve third parties in the resolution of the case. Pakistan has not honored any of these commitments choosing to cite UN resolutions when convenient and disregarding them when not. The two countries have successfully negotiated and upheld the Indus Water River Sharing Agreement, which is often showcased as success in negotiated settlement. Of late there have been disagreements with Pakistan complaining about the Balighar dam in India and India complaining about the Bhasha dam.

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