Nuclear neighbours on the brink of ruinous escalation

For India and Pakistan, war is never more than a heartbeat away. Ever since partition in 1947, there has never been a let-up.

- PETER POPHAM

Fratricidal loathing, the fatal pull of the vendetta, the conviction of millions of Pakistanis that the whole of the Muslim-majority Himalayan territory of Kashmir is, by rights, theirs… such are the factors that keep vicious wars breaking out over and over again.

India and Pakistan are once again teetering on the edge of fullblown conflict amid their most serious escalation in decades.

What was an uneasy standoff erupted this week into open conflict after India initiated Operation Sindoor: pre-dawn strikes against nine sites of "terrorist infrastructure" on its neighbour's side and within Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Pakistan's prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, called India's actions an "act of war", one that killed at least 26 civilians, including women and children, and declared that his country "has every right" to respond.