Are tensions over Kashmir and Afghanistan returning to haunt relations between India and Pakistan?
At first glance, it looks unlikely. The two countries have more or less managed to hold to a ceasefire agreed at the end of 2003 on both the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir and on Siachen, and they have a slow-moving peace process which at least has India and Pakistan talking rather than fighting each other. India is far too interested in winning itself superpower status to let itself be distracted by some embarrassing fighting on its border. And Pakistan has enough problems dealing with al Qaeda and the Taliban on its western border with Afghanistan, without having to cope with trouble on its eastern border with India as well.
But there have been signs of a new strain in relations this week. The two armies exchanged fire across the LoC in a violation of the ceasefire. That in itself might not be too troubling, were it not for the fact that long-simmering resentment in Kashmir against Indian rule has burst into the open again. A decision, subsequently reversed, by the state government to transfer land to the Hindu Amarnath Shrine Board sparked some of the biggest protests since the Kashmir separatist revolt erupted in 1989 and has now brought down the state government.
At the same time, the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul has exposed the rivalry between India and Pakistan over Afghanistan. Afghan authorities hinted that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was behind the attack — prompting Indian analysts to say that the ISI was sending India a message to get out of Afghanistan. Before the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Pakistan regarded Afghanistan as its own preserve — a place that would offer it “strategic depth” against India. Since 2001, it has been forced to watch in frustration as India builds economic and political ties with the government of President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.
So will Kashmir and/or Kabul become the slow burning fuse threatening relations between India and Pakistan? Or is the peace process well enough entrenched to douse the flames?
(Update: Thanks to readers for pointing out the obvious error in the original post which wrongly said that Afghanistan was on Pakistan’s eastern border and India on its western border. I have now corrected above).
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oh my god what happend in India!this is much quicker then i i was thinking, like somebody is in a hurry to do something!
- Posted by Burca Alice LarisaIt appears to me that kabura and Shantanu Chatterjee are really hurting with the hammering that Taliban are giving them in Afghanistan,(massive IED in Kashmir, that’s a new development, isn’t it?). For all the huffing and puffing going on this blog, the future of Afghanistan will not be decided by kabura screaming over the internet, it will be decided by the illiterate, very conservative pashtun farmer. And that pashtun farmer doesn’t like foreigners, he didn’t like the British, not the Russians and certainly not the Americans. That’s the reality of things, any seasoned Afghanistan watcher will tell you this. As far as Pakistan is concerned, Pakistan will fire some bullets in the air in the Tribal Areas whenever America hurts really bad from the battering it gets but it won’t do anything more than this.
- Posted by MuhammadIdris Shah: I have no doubt when you make threats against Afghans and Indians. I really do believe you and fully understand your mentality. Your dogs, the Taleban, and other terrorists are dying like ruts in the mountain cages of Afghanistan. All you cowards can do is to blow yourself up among women and children.
Afghans saved you “Pakistanis” many times in the recent past, against the Hindus and against the Soviet, but those mistakes will not be repeated by the Afghans, never again. And remember that my Islam is not the Islam of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Before you make Afghans and Indians beggars, I would recommend you to have a look at your falling “stock market” in Karachi and your worthless Rupia, not to mention the 25% inflation and rising prices that are just accelerating slowly but surely. So keep an eye on these development, if your heart is strong enough to see the end of it, while I will revisit on this forum within a few months. It would be very interesting to see if you can make the same threats again.
So go milk your Saudi uncles in Riadh and Jedda. Take a few more slavery classes in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.
- Posted by kaburaKabura, Let you as an Afghan or Hindu, Or anything else not have any doubt that the Pakistani nation has one singular motive alone: Keep Pakistan safe, No nation, No ethnic group, No organization, No individual will ever be allowed to question the right of our relgious homeland to exist. Pakistan was established on August 14th 1947 and she will live through the ages.
We will make you Afghan’s and your Indian friends the biggest most deperate beggers of the world. Remember the beggery of your historical Afghan state 1996-2001, Thats all the Afghan nation was, Thats all it will ever remain!
Long Live Pakistan!
- Posted by Dr Idris Shah EbrahimiPakistan was created as a home to muslims of undivided India. We all know that it did not serve that purpose. Most Muslims who migrated to Pakistan, are regretting as they see Muslims back in India doing much better. In India we have some of the richest of Muslims like Prem Ji, Nusli wadia ( by the way grand son of Jinah). Does Pakistan have any billionaire ? Let us accept that nations created on religious lines have always failed. Religion as a state policy is an outdated model. We are not against Pakistan. We are only against Pakistan which spreads hatred in the name of Islam and sending terrorists to kill others.
- Posted by rajendra kumarindia and pakistan have problems not hindu and muslim.
- Posted by mahendrasir, this game of hindu and muslim is no good for both the sides. Let us call pakistan and indian .
- Posted by mahendrakabura my boy attack!
don’t worry when they collapse we three afg,Iran and India will divide the cake.
Pashtoonistan goes to afghanistan,balochistan becomes an independant country frieendly to all three of us.
And we will then treat the punjabis as slaves with mohajirs and sindhis as slave masters and take back paki kashmir and kick out the punjabis from there as well.
inshalah that day will come as pakistan has polluted the name the islam.
I am a hindu btw ,we believe there are many ways to god including islam just not terrorism.
- Posted by Shantanu ChatterjeeIdris Shah: Your country is no country in a political and historical sense. NWFP and Baluchistan are inseparable territories of Afghanistan, which will take them back sooner or later, with or without war.
The Durand Line treaty between Britain and Afghanistan is already out of date since 1993. So you can continue using religious extremism and terrorism as instrument of destabilization against Afghanistan and India , but I assure you that it would take you nowhere. History and geography is your natural enemies. There never was and never will be a Pakistani state. Afghanistan and India don’t have to do much to destroy Pakistan. Your “genius” generals in our demoralized army and desperate ISI will do that.
And stop calling me a Hindu. I have no reason to hide my proud Pashtun/Afghan identity that is thousands of years older than your 60-years old, bloody, colonial, artificial and terror sponsoring entity called Pakistan.
- Posted by kaburaHating Pakistan or the Pakistani people ie Anti-Pakistanism should be formally made illegal and akin to Anti-Semitism in Europe. It should be a crime to question the right of the Pakistani state and people to exist as a seperate sovereign nation state. All countries of the world should be made to sign an accord that condemns in the utmost Anti-Pakistan sentiment.
- Posted by Dr Idris Shah EbrahimiTo the Canadian Andy Rebeiro; Before you as a Canadian point the dirty end of the stick at Pakistan and begin rubbing your hands gleefully at the though of a Balkanization of the Pakistani state, Let me state categorically that the Pakistani people are most hardy, robust and resilient people in the world. If the past 60 years of the Pakistani state show anything, It is that no matter what obstacles are thrown in the path of Pakistan, The Pakistani state with the Pakistani people always overcome the obstacles thrown in her path, Ready to cross the next obstacle.
- Posted by Dr Idris Shah EbrahimiProblems of South Asia can not be solved through finger pointing. Terrorism has become a business like any other business. Its owners will not give up unless forced. Common Pakistani, Indian or Afghani, all are equally affected. We all should join hands if we want to secure our future generations. Through force, neither India nor Pakistan or for that matter any country can solve problems. Let us treat each other as humans and not just Hindus or Muslims.
- Posted by rajendra kumarAs a person from Canada, I hope to give an outside perspective on this issue. The biggest issue is the terrorist genie near Afghan/pak border is out of the bottle and I dont think it is controlled by any state agency, be it CIA, ISI etc. They will continue to create instability by attacking state assets, be it afghan/pak/us/india to create rifts between the states which benefits them.
- Posted by Andy RebeiroUnfortunately what I see is that border provinces of pak like baluch will become similar to afghan - with no state control and could also lead to an actual division of pakistan. Pak already has no proper leadership with the president and govt at loggerheads and the army / ISI playing its own game. Hence common pakistanis have the biggest to lose by not containing this genie monster. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but if this violence continues, it only takes a few years for the breakup like yugoslavia.
I am calling on all of the world that stop ISI the mother
- Posted by Abdul Jabarof terorism. Abdul Jabar/Kabul
Pakistan is here to stay, whatever said. All conspiracies to destabilize it will fail. This is not 1971. May I know in which period of History did a Country called ‘Pakhtunkhwa’ exist? Most of us living in the N.W.F.P are of Middleastern/Afghani origin. I would love to call it Arabia/Afghania. History tells us Afghanistan has never been stable and would continue to do so in futute. Karzai should not blame Pakistan, when he is himself surviving on borrowed crutches. The game being played in Afghanistan can be compared to “Buzkashi” and poor Afghans are the goat. India should stay away from this game, it must remember its destruction always came from Afghanistan. So lets learn to be friends and stop psychopaths at the CIA, RAW,ISI etc control the lives of peace loving people for their vision of the world. All exteremists around the world are their creation, do not blame Pakistan.
- Posted by Pakistanihi! guys,
we all know that there is plenty of food and shelter for all the people living on this good earth; of what use though,there are millions without food or shelter. but we do find enough time to fight over a useless identity based on religion which nobody is clear how it all got started, though everybody agrees it was created to make humans more socialized and civilized,and also the identity based on country or language.
- Posted by avaraniam waiting for that day when people will have no more misgivings about their religion, and one human being is able to see another as his own.
If kabura is hindu then Mr. Ebrahimi can be hindu too…enjoying the fun.
- Posted by GusBut can u change the facts …about instability of pakistan, notoriority of ISI and economic lagging of pakistan.?