This month’s confrontation between India and Pakistan caused a diplomatic, military and political earthquake in Asia and beyond. The tectonic plates will take a while to resettle.
The root cause was all too familiar, dating back to the 1947 partitioning of India and Pakistan and the unresolved issue of Kashmir, control over which remains divided between the two nations.
Pakistan’s official position is that this conflict can only be resolved through a plebiscite, as ordered by the UN Security Council in 1948, while India maintains that its control over its part of Kashmir is non-negotiable.
Since 1989, the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir has been in a state of insurgency, with tens of thousands of people arrested, brutalised or killed. India blames Pakistan for the unrest, but decades of Indian state repression have clearly played a role.
BRITAN
It will never get solved. Kashmir stayed in conflict and bloodshed, favors both India and Pakistan. The latest escalation gave Modi justification to continue sidelining Muslims in India, pass authoritative measures and push the dissolution of waqf assets to be seized by govenrment, while on other side, it also allowed hugely unpopular Pakistani military, to gather public support and clamp down on political opposition and undermine any remaining democracy in the country.
Is there ever a good time for a “military solution”?
For the oppressed but not for the oppressor.
