Not all the places that are involved in the Kashmir dispute have the same importance for the states of India and Pakistan and for an eventual agreement on a territorial settlement. As has been described in the previous chapter, the Kashmir Valley plays a central role and AJK is tightly linked to the conflict, but other areas such as Gilgit-Baltistan and Ladakh can be considered marginal. This does not mean that they are not affected by the conflict dynamics – they are, though in a different way – but the people living in these territories do not feel attached to the political problems in the Kashmir Valley and AJK. Residents of Skardu and Kargil are aware that the dispute is ‘because of the Valley’ and generally see themselves as having a marginal role in the whole question despite suffering from it.

There are cultural and social differences that explain this situation, apart from the incapacity of Kashmiri nationalism to mobilize people in these areas to undertake a united political project. For those in Baltistan and Ladakh, the link with Kashmir is their conquest by the Dogra chiefs of Jammu and then, after the formation of the princely state, their incorporation as part of that political entity.