Recent reports of violence and
anti - India protests from Kashmir valley has once again brought mainstream media's attention to Kashmir Issue .. while much has been discussed about standard of living of Kashmiries , various militant camps , effect on Af-Pak region with regard to Pak Occupied Kashmir ( PoK ), it seems presence of third nuclear power in Kashmir region , China , is largely overlooked by public.
While almost everybody in India seems to have some knowledge/opinion about PoK, most of us almost seems to have forgotten that even China occupies sizable chunk of Kashmir (around 20 %), known as Aksai Chin , while detail analysis of that issue is beyond my ken I will largely depend on my opinions and information easily available around net.
Even today
Aksai Chin is largely inhabited but it is strategically crucial , also China has built logistically important National Highway in the region connecting two of it's sensitive provinces of Tibet and Xinjiang ( which was in the news sometime back for ethnic Uighur riots), also I do not recall Indian leadership showing any will to even claim that this region as Integral part of India , looks like we have completely renounced our hopes of bringing this region into Indian republic and we are gratified if China recognizes Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh as a part of India.
Like Tibet issue , where British actually
invaded Tibet in 1903 to challenge Chinese suzerainty over Tibet and entered into
treaty later , after independence we completely abdicated our claim (which was inherited from British Raj ) on Tibet stating it's china's internal matter , while china has been pushing it's views on Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh blatantly on various forums I really wonder why our government has completely given up on highlighting Aksai Chin issue . It looks like we have made no attempt to even access basic information about Aksai Chin , regarding people living there , culture, current Chinese activities going on in region etc , Frankly speaking very few in India seems to
any interest in the Aksai Chin region and government has done almost nothing to create one. I think we should at least make attempt to get some information about the region which India has been claiming to be part of Indian Republic ( at least on maps ) for last 56 years but largely forgotten/ignored by public.
Attaching map of Kashmir with this post for reader's ready reference.
