PESHAWAR: The high barren mountain land of Chitral … has passed out of the suzerainty of Kashmir quietly and unnoticed. The State has acceded to Pakistan without previous consultations with the Maharaja’s Government in Kash­mir, says the Statesman’s special representative in the NWFP. Chitral’s alliance with Kashmir which has now been broken, dated back to 1854 when the then Mehtar of Chitral, Shah Afzal, sought the Maharaja’s help and together they fought against Yasin and Mastuf, at that time a separate State. About 30 years later, the Maha­raja of Kashmir, who had closely followed developments in Chitral, formally recognised Aman­a­t-ul-Mulk, youngest son of Shah Afzal, as Me­­htar of Chitral and doubled the subsidy gran­ted to him. In return the Mehtar recognised the suzerainty of Kashmir over Chitral. According to po­­litical commentators here, Chitral was justified in severing connections with Kashmir as these connections had no real meaning in recent years.

[Meanwhile, it was also reported that] The Khan of Kalat, who arrived in Karachi on Oct 6, had a prolonged talk with Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah… . It is learnt that the talks centred around the question of Kalat’s accession to Pakistan, and were conducted in the most frank and friendly manner. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2022