Tag: kashmir (last 300)
Kashmir erupts again
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(NYT) India says forensic docs faked evidence of rape and murder in Kashmiri women to frame soldiers. Docs say government’s lying.
An Indo-Pak Alliance?
(Hindu) If Pakistan disappeared, a hundred jihadist Lashkars could become India’s eternal nightmare. The Indian Army would be helpless. Its best protection is likely to be the Pakistan Army. India should help it now. Pervez Hoodbhoy spells it all out.
Kashmir Singh Gill Mayor of Yuba City
(Sacbee) Gill, 48, Republican and agricultural banker, is the first Punjabi American mayor of Yuba City — where 15K of 65K residents are Punjabi. Gill has roots in the area going back four gens. ‘The milestone that’s been a century coming.’
U.S. should mediate Kashmir
(FP) 24 of Pakistan’s 26 divisions remain idling on the Indian border. They refuse to redeploy to the extremist heartland in the west, even as the country is wracked by brazen acts of terrorism.
HRC rules out U.S. role in Kashmir talks
(WSJ) Hillary: ‘It is clearly in Pakistan’s and India’s interest to resolve Kashmir. But it isn’t to us to dictate a solution. That wouldn’t last a minute.’
Throwing men at the problem
(NYT) There are 4 times as many Indian security personnel in Kashmir as U.S. soldiers in Iraq — 500K vs. around 120K.
Let’s send her after bin Laden
(Telegraph) Kashmiri woman defending her family may have killed Uzafa Shah, a wanted Pakistani LeT commander. She’ll received Indian president’s gallantry award.
Kashmiri woman kills home invasion militant
(BBC) A Kashmiri woman grabbed a militant commander who wanted to forcibly marry her, hit him with an axe and shot him 12 times with his rifle.
Balochistan Getting Bleaker
(Hindu) PPP govt repeating same mistakes as Musharraf, after initial good faith negotiations with separatists. In recent months, Baloch activists burn Pakistan flags; Quetta schools stop playing nat’l anthem. East Pakistan-like situation may be developing.
Gilgit-Baltistan officially separated from Azad Kashmir
(Dawn) Pakistan provides separate government, courts, for Gilgit-Baltistan (formerly Northern Areas). JKLF protests. First step to Indo-Pak Kashmir carve-up?
Clinton jammed Sharif on Kargil
(Jammu Kashmir) In ’99, when Sharif linked Kargil withdrawal to Kashmir, Bill Clinton became enraged and said he wouldn’t even suggest it to India, according to an ’04 memoir by Strobe Talbott. Read (sign into Amazon): [via]
Bill Clinton as Kashmir envoy
(Express) Obama talked to Bill Clinton, who leaned on Musharraf to withdraw from Kargil, about becoming U.S. envoy to resolve Kashmir.
Glacier diplomacy
(FP) Despite facing glacier melt, Pakistan’s refused dams in Kashmir, fearing India could hold back water or unleash a torrent ‘like a bomb.’
Kashmiri women were raped, murdered
(ToI) Forensics confirm 2 Kashmiri women were raped and murdered, allegedly by Indian soldiers. The murders sparked a week of protests.
Low turnout in Kashmir
(WaPo) Kashmir election turnout is low this time around. In November more than 60% turned out, dealing a blow to separatists.
Srinagar panorama
Skiing in Kashmir
(BBC)"I want to represent Kashmir in the Olympics one day." Her father flaunts a proud smile. “She will make me and Kashmir proud one day," he says.
Steve Coll on tensions in Kashmir’s summer capital
(New Yorker) “Steve Coll discusses tensions and the recent election in Kashmir’s summer capital, and visits a village graveyard where local police bring unidentified rebel fighters." Audio slide show.
The back channel
(New Yorker Abstract) For several years, special envoys from Pakistan and India had been holding talks on Kashmir in hotel rooms in Bangkok, Dubai, and London.
India lobbied vs. Holbrooke
(FP) India successfully lobbied to exclude itself from Richard Holbrooke’s brief as AfPak envoy because it didn’t want Kashmir to be grouped with NWFP.
Cricket war
(New Yorker) A Kashmiri friend realized that revolution was in the air in the ’80s when the fans booed the Indian team and carried the victorious and very puzzled West Indies captain on their shoulders.
Kashmir forms coalition gov’t
(WSJ) A pro-India coalition will head the new Jammu and Kashmir state government, ending almost six months of federal administration. The new CM is 38, Kashmir’s youngest ever.
Kashmir sees 62% turnout
(WaPo) Kashmir turnout was 61.5% despite a boycott call by separatists. In the last election, in 2002, voter turnout was about 43%.
Kashmiris turned out in large numbers
(WSJ) Kashmiri voters turned out in large numbers and backed an anti-separatist party, which will likely form a coalition with the Congress Party. [Can these results be trusted — how clean was the election?]
Kashmiris vote, weary of violence
(NYT) The well-trained, West Punjabi LeT introduced suicide bombings to Kashmir in ’99. They recorded the screams of Indian soldiers and played them back to villagers. One was shot in either ankle by both sides.
No fear
(TO Globe fotu) a woman who has just voted in a local election near Srinagar, Kashmir smiles as she shows her ink stained finger.
LeT claims Kashmiri grievances
(WaPo) ‘The composition of Lashkar is not Kashmiri. It’s Pakistani Punjabis who, in the name of Kashmiris, end up doing all these horrible things.’
Kashmir quietens down
(WSJ) As few as 600 armed insurgents remain in Kashmir, though nonviolent protests are frequent. Indian troops killed 50 civilians recently, including a milkman for violating curfew and his father who rushed out to save him. Photos: [via]
11/26 suspect arrested
(ToL) Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, an LeT mastermind accused of planning 11/26, was arrested near Muzzafarabad in PoK after Condi Rice twisted the Pakistani gov’t’s arm.
Partition, Congress harmed Indian Muslims
(WSJ) Guha: Partition deprived Muslims of a professional class, while the Congress party’s patronage empowered mullahs. But in Kashmir, the Infosys founder is still a greater hero to Muslim students than bin Laden.
To deter attackers, train local commandos
(Hindu) The Kashmir gov’t had the NSG train local commandos rather than bringing them in from Delhi hours after the attack.
Rauf may have had ISI ties
(WaPo) Rashid Rauf’s ties to Jaish-e-Muhammad, which conducted an ISI-sponsored proxy war in Kashmir and allegedly killed Daniel Pearl, made analysts suspect he was shielded by the ISI.
Obama on Rachel Maddow
(MSNBC) Obama: We should try to resolve the Kashmir crisis so Pakistan can focus on militants. And we’re not just going to fund a dictator so we feel comfortable.
A band, on Kashmir
(HuffPo·L) Mo from Zerobridge: It will take more than a reopened trade route to erase manipulation by India and Pakistan over Kashmiri civil society.
Trucker’s delight
(WaPo) A trade road was reopened from Srinagar to Muzaffarbad, Pakistan. ‘Never had I imagined I would drive my truck to the other side.’ But only 21 items can be traded, and the road will remain closed 5 days a week.
Now for sale: 72 raisins
(CSM) Trucks piled high with containers of apples, nuts, and honey navigated a Kashmir trade road reopened after 60 years. ‘I was 12 when I last saw baskets of fruits being packed to be sent to Rawalpindi.’
A non-denial denial
(WSJ) After Asif Zardari called Kashmir jihadis ‘terrorists,’ it set off a domestic political storm. The WSJ isn’t letting him back out.
Transkashmirian
(BBC) Kashmir’s first ever train line will open after 900 railway bridges were built. Workers toiled in a climate where they can only work outdoors 5 months out of the year, and some were kidnapped by militants.
Biting the hand that feeds
(WaPo) Kashmiri militants are now helping Pakistani Taliban... U.S. asked Japan for $20B for Afghanistan war. They ‘swallowed their chopsticks.’
Troop abuses recorded
(BBC) Kashmiris record clips of shot and dying protesters on their mobiles. Video of a beatdown by security forces (ht: Shashwati): [via]
Kashmiris seek trade route to Pakistan
(WaPo) A merchant who lost $1M in spoiled plums, pears and apple juice during the Kashmir blockade wants to reopen the Silk Road route to Rawalpindi.
Kashmir conflict takes toll on mental health
(WaPo) 60K Kashmiris committed suicide last year. More than 15% have post-traumatic stress disorder. Over 100 Indian soldiers, including officers, killed themselves.
Thinking the unthinkable
(WaPo) Some Indians are criticizing the heavy-handed security clampdown vs. peaceful protests in Kashmir. Arundhati Roy: ‘India needs freedom from Kashmir as much as Kashmir needs freedom from India.’
Hostage drama in Kashmir
(NYT) Jihadis allegedly from Pakistan attacked an Indian Army post near Jammu and then barricaded themselves in a house, waging a daylong battle and holding a family hostage.
Mishra: Ease up on Kashmir
(NYT) Pankaj Mishra: 500K Indian soldiers still pursue a few thousand in Kashmir with pitiless intransigence. 4M million Kashmiri Muslims suffer every day the misery and degradation of military occupation, creating new terrorists.
Kashmiris want to trade with Rawalpindi
(VOA) After a road blockade by Hindus in Jammu & Kashmir, Kashmiris want the road to Rawalpindi reopened so they can trade freely with Pakistan.
Playing with Kashmiri fire
(WSJ) Hurriyat and the BJP are fanning the flames in Kashmir, playing a very dangerous game for the sake of electoral politics.
Kashmir rumbles
(NYT) Earlier this year, tourists were flocking to Dal Lake, the cross-border bus ran, a bookshop opened for the first time in 20 yrs. Today’s scenes reminded residents of the rebellion in the early ’90s.
The ice lingam of Amarnath
Amarnath land grant intended to save lives
(WaPo) Years ago, 200 Amarnath pilgrims died in a blizzard. When protests erupted over the shelter grant, Malik offered the pilgrims blankets and rice and told Muslims to treat them with respect. Then Hindus blockaded roads into Kashmir.
Kashmir clashes explained
(WaPo) Muslims saw the Amarnath land grant as a stealth Hindu settlement plan. After it was revoked, Jammu Hindus blockaded roads at the peak of the apple harvest. The usual suspects, jihadis and the BJP, have jumped on the issue.
19 die in Kashmir police shootings
(NYT) 19 died after Indian security forces fired on Kashmir protesters. Tens of thousands attended a separatist’s funeral. Apple farmers protester their apples were rotting during a road blockade.
Worst Kashmir violence in years
(NYT) Indian security forces fired into anti-Amarnath shrine marchers and killed a prominent Kashmiri separatist. The government imposed a curfew on Srinagar for the first time in a decade.
Kashmiris protest shrine shelters
(NYT) 10K Indian troops are keeping Kashmir quiet. The gov’t allocated land for prefab shelters for half a million Amartnath pilgrims, prompting large Muslim protests.
Destruction in anti-Shiva protests
(NYT) Thousands of Kashmiri Muslims burned flags and effigies of Indian leaders against the transfer of land to the Amarnath Shiva shrine, which would ease pilgrimages.
Golf in Kashmir, where bunkers are real
(NYT) The Indian gov’t is promoting Kashmir as a golf tourism destination, spending $6M on a Jammu course despite the very visible presence of 600K Indian soldiers in the state.
Kashmir Singh admits spying
(Rediff) Man released after 35 years in Pakistani jail: ‘I did the duty assigned to me as a spy. But the Indian government, after my arrest, did not bother to spend a single penny for my family,’ Later retracted his statement.
Azaad Kashmir
(BBC) Kashmir Singh, an Indian released after 35 years in Pakistani jails. touched the earth and greeted his wife. ‘She is still beautiful but has grown old now,’ he said, admitting he remembered very little about his three children. (thanks, CP)
Squeaky wheel gets feature greased
(Networkworld Comment) During the Windows 95 beta, the time control panel highlighted the time zone. India complained about Kashmir’s borders, so Microsoft removed the feature. [via]