Fazl-e-Umar — Page 323
Fazle Umar 323 Subsequent developments clearly established that this announcement of the Gov- ernment of India was only a ruse to cover its military takeover of the State which, from the very first moment, was intended to make the State an integral part of India. The arrival of the Indian military contingents in the valley of Kashmir served to block the advance of the tribal hosts a few miles short of Srinagar, but thereafter the severe cold of the winter in the mountainous region of Kashmir brought about a stalemate and India found it difficult to drive the tribal hosts out of the territories. In the meantime Gilgit, Hunza and portions of Ladakh repudiated their nominal allegiance to the Maharaja and went over to Pakistan. In this situation the Government of India, at the beginning of 1948, placed the matter before the Security Council of the United Nations describing it as a situation that constituted a grave threat to the maintenance of international peace. Pakistan was represented before the Security Council by an Ahmadi Foreign Minister, Hadhrat Ch. Muhammad Zafrulla Khan. The Security Council, after listening to lengthy statements of the representatives of India and Pakistan, discovered that despite their acute differences of outlook, points of view and appraisal of the actual situation, there was one matter on which there was enough agreement between the parties which could form the basis of a settlement of the dispute between them. The Indian representative had made a clear submission to the Security Council what the policy of the government of India on the question of the accession of a State to India or Pakistan was. In cases in which the ruler of a State adhered to one religious persuasion and the majority of the people of the State professed allegiance to the other religious persuasion, the question of the accession of the State should be determined in accordance with the freely expressed wishes of the people of the State. This was acceptable to Pakistan. When, however, the Security Council framed a resolution which would ensure a free expression of their wishes by the people