Defused

India and Pakistan have been warring for decades over competing claims over the Kashmir.

- ALEX MAGNO

The world might have chosen to ignore this irresolvable squabble over landlocked territory high up the mountains had it not been for one thing: both countries are armed with nuclear weapons.

A turn for the worse could lead to a nuclear exchange. No one wins a nuclear war.

The latest outbreak of hostilities between the two countries lasted for three-and-a-half days. Although happening out of the range of the world's main media channels, this short-lived war was intense and destructive.

The combatants fired innumerable missiles at each other. Major air battles involving scores of fighter jets broke out. Before other countries intervened to pressure both India and Pakistan to agree to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, Indian airpower devastated most of Pakistan's military installations — including those that presumably hosted nuclear weaponry.

The dispute between the two large countries began as soon as they won independence in 1947. The British, who colonized the subcontinent, decided to break the territory up into Muslim-majority Pakistan (including East Pakistan, now Bangladesh) and Hindu-majority India. As they did when they withdrew from the Middle East, the British drew the boundaries in haste, neglecting ethnicities.

In the Middle East, the withdrawing colonial power completely neglected the area inhabited by the Kurds. This distinct nationality is now distributed in areas of Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. Kurdistan could have been a separate nation.

So is Baloschistan, now divided and distributed between Iran and Pakistan. There is a lingering armed rebellion waged by this distinct nationality.