Kashmir Shakes India
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Something stunning is happening in Indian controlled Kashmir. World media is not giving it projection, Indians are hiding it and Pakistani media is too busy focusing on political turmoil within. The fact is that the Indian federation has been shaken to the core over the developments in Indian held Kashmir in the last few weeks. The freedom movement, raging since 1987, had sparked off once again in a massive inferno, after a lull of a few years. Indians had thought that they had brought the situation under control. Pakistani policymakers had also written the resistance off under a “peace” initiative called CBMs, or confidence building measures, with India. But the events of the last couple of weeks have caught all – Pakistanis, Indians and the international analysts - by surprise.
This is how a commentator at NYTimes.com described the impressive change in Kahsmir:
For more than a week now, hundreds of thousands of Muslims have filled the streets of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-ruled Kashmir, shouting “azadi” (freedom) and raising the green flag of Islam. These demonstrations, the largest in nearly two decades, remind many of us why in 2000 President Bill Clinton described Kashmir, the Himalayan region claimed by both India and Pakistan, as “the most dangerous place on earth.’ India is usually tagged as a “rising superpower” or “capitalist success story” — clichés so pervasive that they persuaded even so shrewd an observer as Fareed Zakaria to claim in his new book “The Post-American World” that India since 1997 has been “stable, peaceful and prosperous.” It is true that India’s relations with Pakistan have improved lately. But more than half a million Indian soldiers still pursue a few thousand insurgents in Kashmir. While periodically holding bilateral talks with Pakistan, India has taken for granted those most affected by the so-called Kashmir dispute: the four million Kashmiri Muslims who suffer every day the misery and degradation of a full-fledged military occupation. The Indian government’s insistence that peace is spreading in Kashmir is at odds with a report by Human Rights Watch in 2006 that described a steady pattern of arbitrary arrest, torture and extrajudicial execution by Indian security forces — excesses that make the events at Abu Ghraib seem like a case of high spirits. A new generation of politicized Kashmiris has now risen; the world is again likely to ignore them — until some of them turn into terrorists with Qaeda links. It is up to the Indian government to reckon honestly with Kashmiri aspirations for a life without constant fear and humiliation. Some first steps are obvious: to severely cut the numbers of troops in Kashmir; to lift the economic blockade on the Kashmir Valley; and to allow Kashmiris to trade freely across the line of control with Pakistan.”
Indian nightmare turns into reality - Pakistani flag flutters at the funeral of Kashmiri leader Sheikh Aziz in Indian controlled Kashmir. On 15 August, the Indian independence day, Pakistani flags proudly fluttered all over Indian controlled Kashmir. This is a security, political and diplomatic nightmare for India and just when Indians had thought that they have fully and comprehensibly contained Kashmir resistance and encircled Pakistan from Afghan side as well by supporting multiple insurgencies in Pakistan, the valley seems slipping from their hand.
The frictions inside the valley almost always result in clashes along the Line of Control between Pakistani and Indian forces. Both countries know that the situation is serious and any spark can lead to a limited border war. With serious internal pressures from the local population, Indians are obviously reluctant to start a border war and for the first time have gone on serious defensive posture.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Something stunning is happening in Indian controlled Kashmir. World media is not giving it projection, Indians are hiding it and Pakistani media is too busy focusing on political turmoil within. The fact is that the Indian federation has been shaken to the core over the developments in Indian held Kashmir in the last few weeks. The freedom movement, raging since 1987, had sparked off once again in a massive inferno, after a lull of a few years. Indians had thought that they had brought the situation under control. Pakistani policymakers had also written the resistance off under a “peace” initiative called CBMs, or confidence building measures, with India. But the events of the last couple of weeks have caught all – Pakistanis, Indians and the international analysts - by surprise.
This is how a commentator at NYTimes.com described the impressive change in Kahsmir:
For more than a week now, hundreds of thousands of Muslims have filled the streets of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-ruled Kashmir, shouting “azadi” (freedom) and raising the green flag of Islam. These demonstrations, the largest in nearly two decades, remind many of us why in 2000 President Bill Clinton described Kashmir, the Himalayan region claimed by both India and Pakistan, as “the most dangerous place on earth.’ India is usually tagged as a “rising superpower” or “capitalist success story” — clichés so pervasive that they persuaded even so shrewd an observer as Fareed Zakaria to claim in his new book “The Post-American World” that India since 1997 has been “stable, peaceful and prosperous.” It is true that India’s relations with Pakistan have improved lately. But more than half a million Indian soldiers still pursue a few thousand insurgents in Kashmir. While periodically holding bilateral talks with Pakistan, India has taken for granted those most affected by the so-called Kashmir dispute: the four million Kashmiri Muslims who suffer every day the misery and degradation of a full-fledged military occupation. The Indian government’s insistence that peace is spreading in Kashmir is at odds with a report by Human Rights Watch in 2006 that described a steady pattern of arbitrary arrest, torture and extrajudicial execution by Indian security forces — excesses that make the events at Abu Ghraib seem like a case of high spirits. A new generation of politicized Kashmiris has now risen; the world is again likely to ignore them — until some of them turn into terrorists with Qaeda links. It is up to the Indian government to reckon honestly with Kashmiri aspirations for a life without constant fear and humiliation. Some first steps are obvious: to severely cut the numbers of troops in Kashmir; to lift the economic blockade on the Kashmir Valley; and to allow Kashmiris to trade freely across the line of control with Pakistan.”
The frictions inside the valley almost always result in clashes along the Line of Control between Pakistani and Indian forces. Both countries know that the situation is serious and any spark can lead to a limited border war. With serious internal pressures from the local population, Indians are obviously reluctant to start a border war and for the first time have gone on serious defensive posture.
