History of Gilgit-Baltistan
Gilgit-Baltistan is an administrative territory of Pakistan that borders the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, Azad Kashmir to the southwest, Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the northwest, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China to the north, and the Indian-administered region of Jammu and Kashmir to the south and south-east.
After independence, the region became part of the newly formed state of Pakistan through Gilgit rebellion in first Kashmir war.
[3] There are more than 50,000 pieces of rock art (petroglyphs) and inscriptions all along the Karakoram Highway in Gilgit Baltistan, concentrated at ten major sites between Hunza Nagar and Shatial.
[9] It is believed that the Burusho people were the indigenous of the region and were pushed higher into the mountains by the movements of the Indo-Aryans, who traveled southward sometime around 1800 B.C.
Between 399 and 414, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Faxian visited Gilgit-Baltistan,[13] while in the 6th century Somana Patola (greater Gilgit-Chilas) was ruled by an unknown king.
In mid-600s, Gilgit came under Chinese suzerainty after the fall of Western Turkic Khaganate due to Tang military campaigns in the region.
The rulers of Leh in Ladakh, India became increasingly influential in Balti culture and customs, and the chiefs of the region became vassals to the Ladakhis and Tibetan paramountcy.
However, by 755, due to the An Lushan rebellion, the Tang Chinese forces withdrew and was no longer able to exert influence in Central Asia and in the regions around Gilgit-Baltistan.
[28] Ahmad Hasan Dani notes local tradition to mention of a Trakhan Dynasty succeeding to the Patola Shahis, and ruling uninterruptedly until the 19th century for over a millennia.
Famous amongst them was Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani who came via Kashmir[31] while in the Gilgit region Islam entered in the same century through Turkic Tarkhan rulers.
The Maqpons of Skardu unified Gilgit-Baltistan with Chitral and Ladakh, especially in the era of Ali Sher Khan Anchan[32] who had friendly relations with the Mughal court.
[34] Later Anchan in his successors Abdal Khan had great influence though in the popular literature of Baltistan he is still alive as a dark figure by the nickname "Mizos" "man-eater".
Jangir-e-Lae was fought between the people of Nagar state and the troops of the British Raj at Nilt from 1 to 23 December 1891.This valley is situated along the renowned Karakoram Highway, as one travels northward from the city of Gilgit.
[35] The Indian government undertook administrative reforms in 1885 and created Gilgit Agency in 1889 as a way for the British to secure the region as a buffer from the Russians.
On 26 October 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, faced with an invasion by Pakistani tribal fighters, signed the Instrument of Accession, joining India.
The provisional government faded away after this encounter with Alam Khan, clearly reflecting the flimsy and opportunistic nature of its basis and support.
The Gilgit rebellion did not have civilian involvement and was solely the work of military leaders, not all of whom had been in favor of joining Pakistan, at least in the short term.
[46] Scholar Yaqoob Khan Bangash states that the people of Gilgit as well as those of Chilas, Koh Ghizr, Ishkoman, Yasin, Punial, Hunza and Nagar joined Pakistan by choice.
In April 1948, the Council passed a resolution calling for Pakistan to withdraw from all of Jammu and Kashmir and then India was to reduce its forces to the minimum level, following which a plebiscite would be held to ascertain the people's wishes.
At his request, V. P. Menon and Sir N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, drew up a plan for partition of the state, complete with maps (which left Gilgit to Pakistan).
Menon told the chargé d'affaires of the US embassy in Delhi that the Indian government will accept settlement based on accession of Mirpur, Poonch, Muzaffarabad and Gilgit to Pakistan.
In 1963, Pakistan gave up claim on a part of Hunza-Gilgit called Raskam and the Shaksgam Valley of Baltistan region, which resulted in Pak China border agreement 1963, pending settlement of the dispute over Kashmir.
[57] Lalak Jan, a soldier from Yasin Valley, was awarded Pakistan's most prestigious medal, the Nishan-e-Haider, for his courageous actions during the Kargil conflict.
On 29 August 2009, the Gilgit Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order, 2009, was passed by the Pakistani cabinet and later signed by the President of Pakistan.
The order granted self-rule to the people of the former Northern Areas, now renamed Gilgit Baltistan, by creating, among other things, an elected legislative assembly.
There has been an uplift in the self-identification of this territory's inhabitants through the name change but it has still left the region's constitutional status within Pakistan undefined.
In this regard the 1999 Supreme Court judgement is a landmark decision, declaring people of Northern Areas as Pakistani citizens with all fundamental rights.
[58] A seven-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan was told in November 2018 that the Federal Government has had appointed a high-level committee to examine the constitutional reforms of Gilgit-Baltistan.
[63] In early September 2009, Pakistan signed an agreement with the People's Republic of China for a mega energy project in Gilgit–Baltistan which includes the construction of a 7,000-megawatt dam at Bunji in the Astore District.
On 29 September 2009, the Prime Minister, while addressing a huge gathering in Gilgit–Baltistan, announced a multi-billion rupee development package aimed at the socio-economic uplifting of people in the area.
