| TEXT OF INDIA'S COMPLAINT TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL, 1st JANUARY 1948
Source http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/documents/jkindiancomplaintun.html
Letter Dated 1 January, 1948, from the Representative of India to the
President of the Security Council (S/628).
The Government of India have instructed me to transmit to you the following
telegraphic communication :
"1. Under Article 35 of the Charter of the United Nations, any Member
may bring any situation whose continuance is likely to endanger the maintenance
of international peace and security to the attention of the Security Council.
Such a situation now exists between India and Pakistan owing to the aid
which invaders, consisting of nationals of Pakistan and of tribesmen from
the territory immediately adjoining Pakistan on the north-west, are drawing
from Pakistan for operations against Jammu and Kashmir, a State which has
acceded to the Dominion of India and is part of India. The circumstances
of accession, the activities of the invaders which led the Government of
India to take military action against them, and the assistance which the
attackers have received and are still receiving from Pakistan are explained
later in this memorandum. The Government of India request the Security
Council to call upon Pakistan to put an end immediately to the giving of
such assistance, which is an act of aggression against India. If Pakistan
does not do so, the Government of India may be compelled, in self-defence,
to enter Pakistan territory, in order to take military action against the
invaders. The matter is, therefore, one of extreme urgency and calls for
immediate action by the Security Council for avoiding a breach of international
peace.
"2. From the middle of September 1947, the Government of India had
received reports of the infiltration of armed raiders into the western
parts of Jammu Province of the Jammu and Kashmir State; Jammu adjoins West
Punjab which is a part of the Dominion of Pakistan. These raiders had done
a great deal of damage in that area and taken possession of part of the
territory of the State. On 24 October, the Government of India heard of
a major raid from the Frontier Province of the Dominion of Pakistan into
the Valley of Kashmir. Some two thousand or more fully armed and equipped
men came in motor transport, crossed over to the territory of the State
of Jammu and Kashmir, sacked the town of Muzaffarabad, killing many people,
and proceeded along the Jhelum Valley road towards Srinagar, the summer
capital of the Jammu and Kashmir State. Intermediate towns and villages
were sacked and burnt, and many people killed. These raiders were stopped
by Kashmir State troops near Uri, a town some fifty miles from Srinagar,
for some time, but the invaders got around them and burnt the power house
at Mahora, which supplied electricity to the whole of Kashmir.
"3. The position, on the morning of 26 October, was that these raiders
had been held by Kashmir State troops and part of the civil population,
who had been armed, at a town called Baramulla. Beyond Baramulla there
was no major obstruction up to Srinagar. There was immediate danger of
these raiders reaching Srinagar, destroying and massacring large numbers
of people, both Hindu and Muslims. The State troops were spread out all
over the State and most of them were deployed along the western border
of Jammu Province. They had been split up into small isolated groups and
were incapable of offering effective resistance to the raiders. Most of
the State officials had left the threatened area and the civil administration
had ceased to function. All that stood between Srinagar and the fate which
had overtaken the places en route followed by the raiders was the determination
of the inhabitants of Srinagar, of all communities, and practically without
arms, to defend themselves. At this time Srinagar had also a large population
of Hindu and Sikh refugees who had fled there from West Punjab owing to
communal disturbances in that area. There was little doubt that these refugees
would be massacred if the raiders reached Srinagar.
"4. Immediately after the raids into the Jammu and Kashmir State commenced,
approaches were informally made to the Government of India for the acceptance
of the accession of the State to the Indian Dominion. (It might be explained
in parenthesis that Jammu and Kashmir form a State whose ruler, prior to
the transfer of power by the United Kingdom to the Dominions of India and
Pakistan, had been in treaty relations with the British Crown, which controlled
its foreign relations and was responsible for its defence. The treaty relations
ceased with the transfer of power on 15 August last, and Jammu and Kashmir
like other States acquired the right to accede to either Dominion.)
"5. Events moved with great rapidity, and the threat to the Valley
of Kashmir became grave. On 26 October, the ruler of the State, His Highness
Maharaja Sir Hari Singh, appealed urgently to the Government of India for
military help. He also requested that the Jammu and Kashmir State should
be allowed to accede to the Indian Dominion. An appeal for help was also
simultaneously received by the Government of India from the largest popular
organisation in Kashmir, the National Conference, headed by Sheikh Mohammed
Abdullah. The Conference further strongly supported the request for the
State's accession to the Indian Dominion. The Government of India were
thus approached not only officially by the State authorities, but also
on behalf of the people of Kashmir, both for military aid and for the accession
of the State to India.
" 6. The grave threat to the life and property of innocent people in
the Kashmir Valley and to the security of the State of Jammu and Kashmir
that had developed as a result of the invasion of the Valley demanded immediate
decision by the Government of India on both the requests. It was imperative
on account of the emergency that the responsibility for the defence of
the Jammu and Kashmir State should be taken over by a government capable
of discharging it. But, in order to avoid any possible suggestion that
India had utilised the State's immediate peril for her own political advantage,
the Government of India made it clear that once the soil of the State had
been cleared of the invader and normal conditions restored, its people
would be free to decide their future by the recognised democratic method
of a plebiscite or referendum which, in order to ensure complete impartiality,
might be held under international auspices.
"7. The Government of India felt it their duty to respond to the appeal
for armed assistance because :
(1) They could not allow a neighbouring and friendly State to be compelled
by force to determine either its internal affairs or its external relations;
(2) The accession of the Jammu and Kashmir State to the Dominion of
India made India really responsible for the defence of the State.
"8. The intervention of the Government of India resulted in saving
Srinagar. The raiders were driven back from Baramulla to Uri and are held
there by Indian troops. Nearly 19,000 raiders face the Dominion forces
in this area. Since operation in the Valley of Kashmir started, pressure
by the raiders against the western and south-western border of the Jammu
and Kashmir State has been intensified. Exact figures are not available.
It is understood, however, that nearly 15,000 raiders are operating against
this part of the State. State troops are besieged in certain areas. Incursions
by the raiders into the State territory, involving murder, arson, loot,
and the abduction of women, continue. The booty is collected and carried
over to the tribal areas to serve as an inducement to the further recruitment
of tribesmen to the ranks of the raiders. In addition to those actively
participating in the raid, tribesmen and others, estimated at 100,000,
have been collected in different places in the districts of West Punjab
bordering the Jammu and Kashmir State, and many of them are receiving military
training under Pakistani nationals, including officers of the Pakistan
Army. They are looked after in Pakistan territory, fed, clothed, armed
and otherwise equipped, and transported to the territory of the Jammu and
Kashmir State with the help, direct and indirect, of Pakistani officials,
both military and civil.
"9. As already stated, the raiders who entered the Kashmir Valley in
October came mainly from the tribal areas to the north-west of Pakistan
and, in order to reach Kashmir, passed through Pakistan territory. The
raids along the south-west border of the State, which had preceded the
invasion of the valley proper, had actually been conducted from Pakistan
territory, and Pakistan nationals had taken part in them. This process
of transmission across Pakistan territory and utilisation of that territory
as a base of operations against the Jammu and Kashmir State continues.
Recently, military operations against the western and south-western borders
of the State have been intensified, and the attackers consist of nationals
of Pakistan as well as tribesmen. These invaders are armed with modern
weapons, including mortars and medium machine-guns, wear the battle dress
of regular soldiers and, in recent engagements, have fought in regular
battle formation and are using the tactics of modern warfare. Man-pack
wireless sets are in regular use and even mark V mines have been employed.
For their transport the invaders have all along used motor vehicles. They
are undoubtedly being trained and to some extent led by regular officers
of the Pakistan Army. Their rations and other supplies are obtained from
Pakistan territory.
"10. These facts point indisputably to the conclusion
"(a) That the invaders are allowed transit across Pakistan territory;
"(b) That they are allowed to use Pakistan territory as a base of operations;
"(c) That they include Pakistan nationals;
"(d) That they draw much of their military equipment, transportation,
and supplies (including petrol) from Pakistan; and
"(e) That Pakistan officers are training, guiding, and otherwise actively
helping them.
"There is no source other than Pakistan from which they could obtain
such quantities of modern military equipment, training or guidance. More
than once, the Government of India had asked the Pakistan Government to
deny to the invaders facilities which constitute an act of aggression and
hostility against India, but without any response. The last occasion on
which this request was made was on 22 December, when the Prime Minister
of India handed over personally to the Prime Minister of Pakistan a letter
in which the various forms of aid given by Pakistan to the invaders were
briefly recounted and the Government of Pakistan were asked to put an end
to such aid promptly; no reply to this letter has yet been received in
spite of a telegraphic reminder sent on 26 December.
"11. It should be clear from the foregoing recital that the Government
of Pakistan are unwilling to stop the assistance in material and men which
the invaders are receiving from Pakistan territory and from Pakistan nationals,
including Pakistan Government personnel, both military and civil. This
attitude is not only un-neutral, but constitutes active aggression against
India, of which the State of Jammu and Kashmir forms a part.
"12. The Government of India have exerted persuasion and exercised
patience to bring about a change in the attitude of Pakistan. But they
have failed, and are in consequence confronted with a situation in which
their defence of the Jammu and Kashmir State is hampered and their measures
to drive the invaders from the territory of the State are greatly impeded
by the support which the raiders derive from Pakistan. The invaders are
still on the soil of Jammu and Kashmir and the inhabitants of the State
are exposed to all the atrocities of which a barbarous foe is capable.
The presence, in large number of invaders in those portions of Pakistan
territory which adjoin parts of Indian territory other than the Jammu and
Kashmir State is a menace to the rest of India. Indefinite continuance
of the present operations prolongs the agony of the people of Jammu and
Kashmir, is a drain on India's resources and a constant threat to the maintenance
of peace between India and Pakistan The Government of India have no option,
therefore, but to take more effective military action in order to rid the
Jammu and Kashmir State of the invader.
"13. In order that the objective of expelling the invader from Indian
territory and preventing him from launching fresh attacks should be quickly
achieved, Indian troops would have to enter Pakistan territory; only thus
could the invader be denied the use of bases and cut off from his sources
of supplies and reinforcements in Pakistan. Since the aid which the invaders
are receiving from Pakistan is an act of aggression against India, the
Government of India are entitled, under international law, to send their
armed forces across Pakistan territory for dealing effectively with the
invaders. However, as such action might involve armed conflict with Pakistan,
the Government of India, ever anxious to proceed according to the principles
and aims of the Charter of the United Nations, desire to report the situation
to the Security Council under Article-35 of the Charter. They feel justified
in requesting the Security Council to ask the Government of Pakistan :
(1) To prevent Pakistan Government personnel, military and civil,
from participating or assisting in the invasion of the Jammu and Kashmir
State;
(2) To call upon other Pakistani nationals to desist from taking any
part in the fighting
in the Jammu and Kashmir State;
(3) To deny to the invaders : (a) access to any use of its territory
for operations against Kashmir, (b) military and other supplies, (c) all
other kinds of aid that might tend to prolong the present struggle.
"14. The Government of India would stress the special urgency of the
Security Council taking immediate action on their request. They desire
to add that military operations in the invaded areas have, in the past
few days, been developing so rapidly that they must, in self-defence, reserve
to themselves the freedom to take, at any time when it may become necessary,
such military action as they may consider the situation requires.
"15. The Government of India deeply regret that a serious crisis should
have been reached in their relations with Pakistan. Not only is Pakistan
a neighbour but, in spite of the recent separation, India and Pakistan
have many ties and many common interests. India desires nothing more earnestly
than to live with her neighbour-State on terms of close and lasting friendship.
Peace is to the interest of both States; indeed to the interests of the
world. The Government of India's approach to the Security Council is inspired
by the sincere hope that, through the prompt action of the Council, peace
may be preserved.
"16. The text of this reference to the Security Council is being telegraphed
to the Government of Pakistan."
Source: Government of India documents |