WRITING in the New York Times in August 2010, journalist Selig Harrison had said Pakistan was “handing over” Gilgit-Baltistan — where he discovered “an influx” of Chinese soldiers — to China. In the story headlined ‘China’s discreet hold on Pakistan’s northern borderlands’, Mr Harrison had reported “a quiet geopolitical crisis” in Gilgit-Baltistan where “Islamabad is handing over de facto control of the strategic” territory to Beijing. Harrison also discovered “22 tunnels” which were barred to Pakistanis and which could be used for storing missiles.
Two years on, the Indian army chief has shown such ‘revelations’ to be unverified and has supported earlier denials by both China and Pakistan. The latter two countries have long collaborated on infrastructure projects in the border areas, including the feat of engineering that is the Karakoram Highway. It is known that Chinese experts are involved in several rail, road and power projects. For that reason, the presence of Chinese nationals is not something that should cause nightmares for anyone and be referred to as an “influx”. As Gen Bikram Singh said on Wednesday, the Chinese soldiers were there to “provide protection” to railway, road and hydroelectric projects. Beijing, however, insists there are no soldiers in the border area. In an interview on Sept 3 with The Hindu, Chinese Defence Minister Gen Liang Guanglie clarified “once again” that the People’s Liberation Army had “never deployed a single soldier” there. Mr Harrison had said that China wanted “unfettered access to the Gulf”, but was alarmed over China’s “grip” over Gilgit-Baltistan. Gen Singh’s words, then, should serve to allay any fears in India of militaristic designs on the part of China. In fact, there is also a lesson for India and Pakistan: suspicions need not arise over every activity that takes place on the other’s soil near the border areas.http://dawn.com/2012/09/24/mountain-or-a-molehill/
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