OCTOBER 27 is the black day on which India had invaded the disputed Jammu and Kashmir state back in 1947. Alastair Lamb in his book, Incomplete Partition: The Genesis of the Kashmir Dispute 1947-1948, writes: “According to Wolpert, VP Menon returned to Delhi from Srinagar on the morning of Oct 26 with no signed Instrument of Accession. Only after the Indian troops had started landing at Srinagar airfield on the morning of Oct 27 did VP Menon and MC Mahajan set out from Delhi for Jammu. The Instrument of Accession, according to Wolpert, was only signed by Maharaja Sir Hari Singh [if signed at all] after Indian troops had assumed control of the Jammu and Kashmir State’s summer capital, Srinagar.”

Lamb regards the so-called Instrument of Accession, ‘signed’ by the Maharaja of Kashmir on Oct 26, 1947, as fraudulent. He argues that the Maharaja was travelling by road to Jammu, which is a distance of over 350km. How could he sign the instrument while being on the run for his life?

There is no evidence of any contact between him and the Indian emissaries on Oct 26, 1947. Lamb points out that the Indian troops had already arrived at and secured Srinagar airfield during the middle of October 1947. On Oct 26, 1947, a further airlift of thousands of Indian troops to Kashmir took place.

The sitting Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, annexed the disputed state, spurning the United Nations resolutions and the Simla Accord. India must know that a state that flouts international treaties is a rogue state. As one of the oldest principles of international law dictates, pacta sunt servanda.

A.J. Malik
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2021