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Telegraph

The water dispute that goes to the heart of the tensions between India and Pakistan

SIR – The real bone of contention between India and Pakistan is not Kashmir per se (report, May 9), but its water. If Kashmir did not have water, it would not have been a problem. It is sad that when Cyril Radcliffe, the man who drew the India-Pakistan boundary in August 1947, approached Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah with his Indus Waters proposal, he was snubbed by both. Radcliffe wanted both leaders to run the river-canal system as a joint Indo-Pakistan venture. However, Jinnah told him that he would 'rather have Pakistan deserts than fertile fields watered by courtesy of Hindus', while Nehru curtly informed him that what India did with its rivers was India's affair. The issue of shared waters between the two neighbours has remained contentious ever since. Simren Kaur Jalandhar City, Punjab, India SIR – Unless the long-standing Kashmir dispute is resolved there will be no lasting peace or friendship between India and Pakistan. Britain should be part of the dialogue because the origin of the disagreement goes back to the messy and unplanned borders that were the result of partition in 1947. The plebiscite recommended by the United Nations never took place. It should be held now. Hyder Ali Pirwany Okehampton, Devon SIR – Rising tensions and the prospect of war between India and Pakistan highlight the indispensable nature of the British Indian Ocean Territory, which gives Britain a strategic presence in a region of global interest. In light of the changing situation, will the Government finally suspend the giveaway of the Chagos Islands? Robert Frazer Salford, Lancashire SIR – The escalation of the dispute between India and Pakistan shows the sheer stupidity of allowing unstable regimes to have nuclear weapons. We have the same situation with North Korea, and potentially Iran. Weak governments in the West have let this happen and we are now seeing the potential for nuclear Armageddon in these countries. We must never permit Iran to gain access to nuclear weapons, or we could see mass destruction in the Middle East, with dire consequences for oil and gas supplies. Stan Kirby West Malling, Kent SIR – The Australian journalist Murray Sayle, who covered the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971, told of a press briefing given by the Indian Air Force, which reported that there had been intense activity, but that no planes had been shot down on either side. Afterwards, he asked the briefing officer why so much effort had achieved no result. 'My dear fellow, you can't shoot down your friends,' came the reply. 'We were all at RAF Cranwell together.' John Carter Shortlands, Kent