China and Pakistan: Original Sinners of Gilgit-Baltistan and the ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir’ - A tale of genocide, covert demographic engineering, slavery, and suppression

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Abstract

Recently, after abrogating Kashmir's semi-autonomous status, India declared a new domicile law for Kashmir. Pakistan has reacted strongly against this new law accusing India’s Hindu-nationalist government of harbouring schemes to alter the demography of Kashmir in order to change its Muslim-majority character. In this article, it is argued that Pakistan’s criticism is ethically unjustified because of its own blemished record of demographic engineering in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir’ (‘AJK’). State-led demographic engineering in ‘AJK’ and GB is discussed, arguing that such attempts have marginalized the local Shi’a community. Pakistan has settled Sunni extremists in GB and ‘AJK’. As of result, today, the region is home to intense sectarian violence and Sunni terrorist groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar–i-Taiba. This article also points to these demographic engineering projects, being not merely Pakistani projects: China has tremendous stakes in the demographic engineering of GB to secure its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).