India and Pakistan edge closer to war

Yesterday, India launched strikes on Pakistan and Pakistani-admin-istered Kashmir, two weeks after a terrorist attack.

- John J Metzler

The situation follows a long-smouldering fuse which has reignited in the wake of the terrible terrorist attack killing 27 tourists in a region of disputed Kashmir, part of India’s territory. Some 25 Indian civilians were apparently targeted because of their Hindu religion.

Since the unprovoked attacks in late April, rhetoric between India and Pakistan has ratcheted up, and the respective capitals of New Delhi and Islamabad have seethed with renewed animosity and sabre rattling. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had vowed to retaliate against the terrorist perpetrators, pledging to pursue the attackers “to the ends of the earth”.

Just weeks earlier, Pakistan’s army chief General Asim Munir termed Kashmir as Pakistan's “jugular vein,” comments viewed as among possible triggers for the terror attack that coincided with the visit of US Vice President JD Vance. While Pakistan's government has not directly carried out such attacks, in the past it has supported Islamic militants. Some in India’s outspoken media have labelled Gen Munir, “The Jihadi General.”

Crisis comes quickly in Kashmir, which has been the source of three wars between the now nuclear-armed neighbours as well as countless standoffs and scuffles near the dividing Line of Control, the old cease-fire line going back to the 1972 Simla agreement.