Kashmir: a simmering, sometimes brutal small war

[Ray]

I am not sure what the intention of the new Indian central government is here; no doubt it is a mixture of factors:

The author is not impartial and this appears not in the 'news', but in the 'comment' section:http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...u-human-rights

India is a secular country.

If Kashmir goes, thanks to vested interests and not solely Moslem, then there will be a bloodbath in India since none will stomach a Second Partition on religious grounds.

And will Pakistan, which is already tottering with internal confusion and a dead and dying economy, be able to absorb the exodus?

The imbalance will be catastrophic not only to India, but to the world.

All are worried about the same.

[davidbfpo]

One of the BBC's reporters has been to Azad Kashmir Pakistan-administered) and reports:

Pakistani army chief Raheel Sharif's recent statement that "Pakistan and Kashmir are inseparable" has added to tensions between India and Pakistan. The two nuclear-armed neighbours each claim Kashmir in its entirety, and occupy different parts of it. But as the BBC's M Ilyas Khan discovered on a recent visit to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir and the base camp for the insurgency, all is unusually quiet.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33359800

[davidbfpo]

A detailed article by Shashank Joshi (RUSI) via the Australian Lowy Institute's email briefing:

On 27 July, three (Kashmiri) militants crossed from Pakistan into the Indian state of Punjab, according to GPS sets they were carrying. They planted five IEDs on a railway track, targeted bus passengers and holed up in a police station in Gurdaspur 20km from the border, eventually killing seven Indians. The attackers were themselves killed by local police after a day's siege.

Link:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...d-method.aspx?

[omarali50]

a longish article, but covers a lot (I think, obviously)

http://brownpundits.blogspot.com/201...long-view.html

[davidbfpo]

A grim update on a long suspected "dirty war":

Imroz and his team redoubled their efforts, spreading their net across 55 villages in three districts, Bandipora, Baramulla and Kupwara. An ad-hoc inquiry run by volunteers and funded by donations saw the number of unmarked and mass graves mapped rise to 2,700. Inside them were 2,943 bodies; 80% of them unidentified.....And a new deposition submitted by Imroz's field workers covering two more districts, Rajoori and Poonch, mapped 3,844 more unmarked and mass graves, taking the total number to more than 6,000. There are still another 16 districts yet to be surveyed, leaving Imroz to wonder how many violent deaths and surreptitious burials have been concealed across Kashmir.

Link:http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...es-of-kashmir?

[davidbfpo]

A success for India and not popular locally:

Indian authorities have imposed an indefinite curfew in most parts of Kashmir, a day after government forces killed the top rebel commander in the disputed Himalayan region, officials said, describing it as a major success against fighters opposed to Indian rule.

Link:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/09/india-imposes-kashmir-curfew-after-death-of-rebel-leader?

[davidbfpo]

Insight into one aspect of the disorder in Kashmir via Katoh's comment on a SWJ article, not on Kashmir:

Lately in the militancy affected Kashmir Valley in India there was a wave of unrest post the killing of a 22 year old militant commander who had risen to fame on account of his good looks, ISIS style of videographed threat messages (given without masking his face) and his adroit use of social media.
The police forces in Kashmir used Pellet guns to quell the unrest since protests in Kashmir very quickly and often assume a hue of deadly violence. Use of these guns had been introduced in 2010 to reduce the fatalities among rioting supporters of militants.
However, this non lethal weapon resulted in a number of eye injuries on account of the large crowds on the streets including bystanders. Human nature being what it is, a dead rioter goes out of public gaze in a short time. If the number of fatalities is large then the media does not even publicise names. However young people sans their previous malevolent disposition and lying on a hospital bed with bandages over one/both eyes/bloodshot eyes lead to an outpouring of pity.
Consequently the Pellet Gun which was introduced in Kashmir with good intentions got demonized by local politicians, NGOs and the media.

Link:http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art...egular-warfare