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| Photo Credit: flickr.com/Jack Zalium |
Since the founding of India and Pakistan as separate states in 1947, the dispute over who should control Kashmir has been one of the world's most enduring and violent conflicts. In 1999, the two states came close to war over a border incursion by Muslim partisans into the Kargil region which borders Kashmir in India. According to the Indian government those involved were trained in and backed by Pakistan.
In 1998, both India and Pakistan successfully test-exploded nuclear devices, leading many to fear a new arms race. India claims it needs nuclear weapons in case of possible future confrontations with China, with whom it fought a border war in the 1960s. There are also signs of a religious conflict at play, pitting predominantly Hindu India against Muslim Pakistan. The US led war against neighboring Afghanistan is raising concerns that the conflict may escalate tensions in Kashmir as skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani forces are regularly reported along the Line of Control.
Key Documents
Articles
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009| 2008 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | Archived Articles
2012
Anti-Drone Protesters Set Off on Historical March in Pakistan, Despite Threats (October 6, 2012)
A march protesting US drone strikes in Pakistan has set off from Islamabad to Waziristan. Despite rumors that local militants would attack the convoy, the protest, led by politician Imran Khan and supported by US anti-war group CODEPINK, was joined by demonstrators from the United States, Pakistan and around the world. The aim of the march is to put pressure on the US administration to acknowledge that the drone strikes are inhumane and counterproductive. (Common Dreams)
Living Under Drones: Death, Injury, and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan (September, 2012)
Stanford Law School and the NYU School of Law have just produced a report on the impact of the US drone campaign in Pakistan. The research, based on more than 130 interviews with victims, witnesses, and experts, and a review of documentation and media reporting, shows how the US drone strike policies negatively impact civilians in Pakistan. Not only are the US drone strikes terrorizing civilian communities, they also push victims and relatives to join non-state groups, who are responsible for further violent attacks. Thus, the US drone campaign in Pakistan is both damaging and counterproductive.
2011
Pakistan’s Refugees Reluctant to Return as American War Rages (October 27, 2011)
For four years, skirmishes between US troops and the Taliban have increasingly driven thousands of people out of North Waziristan (NW) on the Pakistan-Afghan border. Nearly impossible to guard due to the mountainous terrain, the Durand Line (as the Pakistan-Afghan border is known) divides tribes and families. It has never been accepted by the Afghan government, and Pakistani officials also permit tribal movement across the porous border. Tens of thousands from NW fled after US drone strikes began regularly targeting militants from across the Afghan border, leaving civilian casualties and escalating tensions in the region. The Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre says there are now 980,000 displaced persons in Pakistan. (AlterNet)
The Unmarked Graves of Kashmir (October 3, 2011)
The small hamlet of Bimbiyar, in the northern part of the Kashmir valley, is home to a mass graveyard, in which 250 unknown people have been buried since 2003. Most of the bodies, brought there by the local police, show marks of beatings and torture. Mass graves have become a common phenomenon in Kashmir. A group of human rights activists have published a report revealing that at least 2,900 unmarked graves of unidentified people are present in three northern districts of the Kashmir valley. But the number of mass graves could be even higher. (Countercurrents.org)
Pakistan’s Bitter, Little-Known Ethnic Rebellion (August 23, 2011)
According to human rights organizations, the Pakistani government has intensified its attempt to stamp out an uprising by the Baluch ethnic minority over the last 18 months in an increasingly deadly crackdown on political and student national leaders. Although cases of torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings are mounting, Pakistan’s “Dirty War” receives little media attention internationally. A Baluch political leader has called on the US to end aid to the Pakistani Army, which, he said, was diverting resources from intended counterterrorism goals and using them to suppress the nationalists. Baluch demands range from greater control over Baluchistan’s gas and natural resources, fairer distribution of wealth, to outright independence. (New York Times)
The Impunity of the Armed Forces in Kashmir (April 17, 2011)
Al Jazeera's Azad Essa interviews Aaliya Anjum, lecturer in law at University of Kashmir, about the state-sanctioned human rights violations in India-administered Kashmir, including extra-judicial killings, torture, and illegal detentions. There are currently 8,000 to 10,000 reported cases of enforced disappearances. Through special security legislation that sidesteps international human rights conventions, the Indian government grants its armed forces the “power” to shoot to kill or arrest persons based on suspicion alone. An arrested person may be held in custody for up to two years without trial, yet the army is immune from prosecution. According to Anjum, the state uses these laws as tools to curb dissent and suppress popular sentiment for freedom in Kashmir. (Al Jazeera)
2010
Kashmir Intifada? New View of India, Pakistan Territory Dispute (July 13, 2010)
Officials and analysts are calling the uprisings against the Indian government in Kashmir an "intifada." This name links the events in the contested region along the border of India and Pakistan to the earlier uprisings of Palestinians against Israeli occupying forces in the territories. The phrase also highlights that the uprisings are no longer led by trained militants and political factions. Rather, stone-throwing youths have taken to the streets chanting slogans such as, "We want freedom" and "India get out." Is this an appropriate application of the phrase "intifada" given the moral and legal dimensions of the conflict between India and Pakistan? (Christian Science Monitor)
