Kashmir: a simmering, sometimes brutal small war

[davidbfpo]

An excellent explanation of the current crisis by Shashank Joshi, via the Australian blog Lowy Interpreter:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...n-Kashmir.aspx

Point to note:

The Uri attack killed 18 soldiers, but this has to be understood in the context of the death of 135 members of Indian security forces this year alone, including 64 in Kashmir.

[AdamG]

India conducted surgical strikes last night along#the LoC to safeguard our nation, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday. “Significant casualties have been caused to terrorists and those trying to shield them. We don’t have a plan to further conduct such strikes. India has spoken to Pakistan,” DGMO Lt Gen Ranbir Singh said.
“Based on receiving specific and credible inputs that some terrorist teams had positioned themselves at launch pads along Line of Control to carryout infiltration and conduct terrorist strikes inside Jammu and Kashmir and in various metros in other states, the Indian Army conducted surgical strikes at several of these launch pads to pre-empt infiltration by terrorists. The operations were focussed on ensuring that these terrorists do not succeed in their design to cause destruction and endanger the lives of our citizens.

http://indianexpress.com/article/ind...istry-3055715/

[davidbfpo]

Kashmir has been "bubbling along" for awhile, with occasional reports in the media I use, so thanks to Twitter for the pointer to this commentary by a former Indian Home Minister; which is sub-titled:

The writing on the wall is clear. The alienation of the people of the Kashmir Valley is nearly complete. We are on the brink of losing Kashmir.

He writes:

he writing on the wall is clear. The alienation of the people of the Kashmir Valley is nearly complete. We are on the brink of losing Kashmir. We cannot retrieve the situation through a ‘muscular’ policy — tough talk by ministers, dire warnings from the Army Chief, deploying more troops or killing more protesters.

Link:http://indianexpress.com/article/opi...aster-4614675/

A "lurker" added:

The assessment is correct. The Hindu Central government's only aim is to suppress Muslims and they feel that strong arm tactics will solve the Valley problem. But the situation is explosive. Pakistan is very happy that we are creating our own problems.

[davidbfpo]

An Indian SME commentary on the situation in Kashmir and the apparent decision by the Indian national government to:

...adapt the “strong arm strategy” of the Israeli government of ignoring the Palestinians since 2001.

(Later) All these would indicate that blindly following the Israeli strategy as our counter-terrorist tactics would be totally inadvisable.

Link:http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/N...-in-the-Valley

[Bill Moore]

I suspect India will learn (or just observe) the same lesson Israel should have learnt, which is the strategy of escalate to de-escalate is usually ineffective. Not only will generate more resistance, it also risks pushing divided anti-government actors together under common cause. There are no simple answers to complex problems.

[AdamG]

At least four Indian soldiers were killed Saturday in Pakistani firing along the highly militarized de facto border that divides the disputed region of Kashmir between the nuclear-armed rivals, Indian officials said.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/...shmir-51967358

[davidbfpo]

Via a Twitter account @Minalami for a Jihadism specialist and Editorial Lead/team manager @ BBC Monitoring:

Online accounts affiliated with so-called Islamic State (IS) have shared a video showing a pledge of allegiance to the group made by “mujahidin in Kashmir”, possibly paving the way for an IS declaration of a new branch there.

There are a dozen tweets giving more details.

Also covered in this Israeli online publication:http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/...er-21-27-2017/