Pakistan has limited options on Kashmir: US Congress think tank
Pakistan which has been fuming after India altered Kashmir's decades-old status, has limited options to deal with the issue, a report of US Congressional Research Service (CRS) said earlier this month. The think tank, that published its second report on the Valley in six months, noted that Islamabad can't take the military route, and only has to bank on diplomacy.
How India dealt with Kashmir evoked sharp reaction from Pakistan
In August last year, New Delhi revoked sections of Article 370, that awarded special status to Jammu and Kashmir. This was done to put an end to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, the BJP-led Centre said. Despite Kashmir being India's internal matter, Islamabad commented on it claiming human rights violations were taking place. Khan tried to flag the matter on several international forums, only to be snubbed.
Pakistan was ignored, India got support
Almost all the countries refused to say anything on Kashmir's changed status, calling it India's internal matter. Later, some of them expressed concerns about prolonged communication blackout. India's upper hand on the matter was reflected in the report of CRS, which is an independent research wing that publishes reports from time to time to help US lawmakers take decisions.
Islamabad has little credibility on Kashmir, feel analysts
In its 25-page report, CRS noted that barring Turkey, none of the countries openly supported its stand on Kashmir. "Many analysts view Islamabad as having little credibility on Kashmir, given its long history of covertly supporting militant groups there. Pakistan's leadership has limited options to respond to India's actions, and renewed Pakistani support for Kashmiri militancy likely would be costly internationally," the report added.
However, think tank noted India damaged its reputation through CAA
CRS added that whatever chance Pakistan has is because of its all-weather China. "Islamabad may stand by and hope that self-inflicted damage caused by New Delhi's own policies in Kashmir and, more recently, on citizenship laws, will harm India's reputation and perhaps undercut its recent diplomatic gains with Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE," the report went on.
US grew closer to India, ties worsened with Pakistan: Report
CRS also highlighted that in recent years Washington has grown closer to India and its ties with Pakistan have deteriorated. President Donald Trump had in 2018 significantly reduced financial and military aid to Pakistan. "President's apparent bonhomie with Pakistan's prime minister and offer to mediate on Kashmir in July was taken by some as a new and potentially unwise strategic shift," it went on.
All mediation offers of US have been rebuffed by India
Last year, President Trump ticked off a controversy by saying he was ready to mediate between the South Asian neighbors to solve the Kashmir issue. He reiterated the offer many times, but New Delhi rebuffed all of them, saying it doesn't want a foreign nation's interference. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Trump at UN, the former said India doesn't like bothering other nations.
Earlier, Khan admitted Western countries gave lukewarm response to Kashmir
The CRS report doesn't point out anything new which Pakistan doesn't know already. Last week, the country's premier Imran Khan accepted that the Kashmir issue received a lukewarm response from Western powers. He claimed since India is a huge market, the "struggles" of 8 million Kashmiris and minorities didn't get the attention it deserves. Khan added that only "commercial interests hold importance" for them.
