On Again-Off Again
A dreadfully violent, politically and religiously motivated separation took place over sixty years ago, when India surrendered to the demand of Muslims for a country of their own and Pakistan was born. In the process mass migrations of Indian Sikhs leaving the new territory of Pakistan crossed with huge numbers of Muslims leaving India to settle in the new Muslim-majority country of Pakistan. During this time of mass migration and ill-will, horrible massacres occurred with Sikhs slaughtered by Muslims and Muslims butchered by Sikhs.It is hugely doubtful whether any of the Indian Sikhs who left Pakistan would ever consider moving back; it is highly unlikely that Pakistan would welcome their entry back to the country of their birth and heritage. On the other hand, Muslims in India, as residents and citizens of India demographically out-number any other country in the world other than Indonesia, and in India Muslims have full rights as citizens. Yet relations between Pakistan and India have never cooled from that bubbling distrust and hatred.
India has good enough reason to distrust Pakistan's intentions. Pakistan has never ceased trying to foment violence against India. The disagreement between the two countries relating to the territory of Kashmir is a huge flash-point between the two; each share territorial ownership of roughly half of Kashmir, but each feels entitled to claiming the entire of Kashmir as rightfully theirs. That contesting of ownership has resulted in horrible clashes over the years and countless deaths.
The viral, vicious enmity travels a one-way street, however; from Pakistan directly to India. The Pakistan Military and its Secret Service have always conspired to wreak havoc in India. They have nourished resentment and rage within the population as direct government policy. And Pakistan's military and secret service has encouraged the creation of terrorist groups; funding, training and the provision of arms for the purpose of sending them to India or Kashmir to wreak bloody havoc.
From time to time the governments of both countries make tentative overtures to reach peace agreements with one another. Something always erupts at the last moment when things begin to look hopeful that the two nuclear powers will finally arrive at a solution to their long enmity. One of the reasons that Pakistan nurtured the Afghan Taliban was to ensure they could control their neighbour, not India; whereas India's designs were of a helpful nature, Pakistan's were malign.
AP Photo: Hamza Ahmed Pakistani troops, right, give
sweets to their Indian counterparts on Pakistan's Independence Day Aug.
14 at the Wagah border in Pakistan.
Heavily armed militants along with Pakistani soldiers crossed the Kashmir border and killed five Indian troops. A cease-fire in 2003 was meant to cool the border dispute. The two countries have gone to war with one another in the past, and a war had erupted at one point focusing on Kashmir. It would appear obvious that some rogue elements of the Pakistani military, allying themselves with a terror militia, of which there is no shortage in the area, conspired to provoke an emergency between the two countries.
The Pakistan military for its part denies its soldiers killed any Indian troops. They have instead accused Indian soldiers of killing two Pakistani civilians and wounding two others beside the border in the last week. Several years ago a Pakistani military-backed terror group, Lashkar e-Taiba, sent a handful of terrorists to Mumbai on a mission to kill and destroy; in that 2008 attack 164 people died, and 308 were injured. Another attack took place in 2011, and 26 people were killed with 130 injured.
This is what Pakistan proves itself capable of. This does not reflect what India is interested in foisting on its next-door neighbour.
Labels: Conflict, India, Islamism, Pakistan, Political Realities, Societal Failures, Terrorism
posted by Pieface @ Friday, August 16, 2013
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