The risk of an all-out war between India and Pakistan rose this week despite diplomatic attempts to ease the battle after the fatal terrorist attacks in Kashmir, the area where both countries have fought since 1947.
A civilian was killed on Wednesday as India was hit deeper by Pakistan than before. The fatal shootings and artillery fire were exchanged along the disputed border on Thursday. As that continued on Friday, Pakistani drones hit Indian soil, Indian troops said.
There is something to know about the years of tensions between India and Pakistan, the attacks on Kashmir, this week’s clashes and attempts to resolve conflicts.
What’s the latest in combat?
Indian forces said on Friday that Pakistan launched attacks along the western border using drones and other weapons, preventing them from attacking. Pakistan rejected these claims.
India responded by hitting Pakistan’s air defense system and radar. Pakistan accused India of what it called an illegal attack, saying its forces had fired down more than two dozen Indian drones that had entered Pakistan’s airspace.
In a rapidly developing situation, claims from both sides could not be independently tested. Missiles and shootings have been flying across the country’s shared border since Thursday, killing civilians on both sides.
Pakistani military officials, who had attacked Pakistan and hit that side of the contested Kashmir region, said they had begun a strong response.
On Wednesday, the Indian government said its forces had attacked sites on Pakistan’s territory. Pakistani military officials said they defeated an Indian plane. They added that the Jets were not in Pakistan’s airspace while they were attacking Pakistan.
More than 20 people have been killed after the attacks of Pakistan-controlled side of Kashmir and six sites in Pakistan’s Punjab, military officials said. At least 10 people have been killed in artillery fire from the Pakistani side since India took the strike, residents of India-controlled Kashmir area said.
What is being done to stop the fight?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with leaders of both countries on Thursday, highlighting the need for “immediate de-expansion,” according to a State Department Call Bureau account.
Diplomatic meetings were riotous in New Delhi and Islamabad on Thursday. Top Iran and Saudi Arabia diplomats are important regional players with close ties to both warring countries and were in New Delhi for a meeting.
The diplomatic push was focused on hopes that the heavy military involvement would be contained in early action on Wednesday. Both sides could argue that they were plausible as India was hit deeper by Pakistan than in any point in recent decades, and Pakistan defeated several Indian planes.
Diplomats and analysts expressed hope that the event of the day might offer an off-ramp for both sides. The current question is whether Pakistan decides that it must answer the Indian strike in Punjab, the heartland of Pakistan.
What happened in the Kashmir attack?
On April 22, extremists shot 26 people dead in the Baisaran Valley in Kashmir. Another 17 people were injured.
Aside from one local Kashmiri, the government’s tally of deaths showed that all were Hindu tourists. Descriptions from the injured and survivors suggested that many were targeted after being asked about their religion. The attack that took place near Pahargam, in the southern part of India-controlled Kashmir, was one of the worst for Indian civilians in decades.
A group called the Front of Resistance has appeared on social media to take responsibility. Indian officials personally say the group is on behalf of Rashkar e Taiba, a Pakistan-based terrorist organisation.
In Kashmir, Indian security forces began a wiped clampdown and arrested thousands of people.
What is Operation Sindoor?
India named it the Military Operations Sindoor.
Sindoor, or Vermilion Powder, is a traditional marker of the status of marriage status in Hindu women. Married women wear it on their hair breakup or forehead and wipe it off if they become widowed. Many women lost their husbands during the terrorist attacks on April 22nd.
The Indian government’s choice to operate Operation Sindoah had indicated its intention to revenge the widowed woman.
Operation Sindore also signal the right-wing Hindu group. Many of them support a more traditionally defined role of gender – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government is listening to the demands of vengeance.
However, some feminists have criticized the use of the word sindoor.
Hindu nationalism is driven primarily by the views of men around the world, said V. Goesa, a feminist historian who writes about gender, caste and class. “Women think of it as objects to be protected, or as if their mothers were running through their men to prove their heroism,” Gaesa said.
What is the origin of the conflict?
The roots of the Kashmir conflict date back to the division of British India in 1947, which led to the creation of primarily Hindu India and primarily Muslim Pakistan.
That October, the majority of Muslims, Kashmiri princely Hindu monarchs, were accused of India, but Pakistan claimed territory and tried to take it by military force. An unrecorded agreement in 1949 established a ceasefire line to divide Kashmir.
After the wars of 1965 and 1971, the ceasefire became the line of control, with India owning about two-thirds of Kashmir and Pakistan. However, the dispute remains unresolved.
This is a timeline of decades of tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
Did Pakistan support extremists in Kashmir?
The revolt in the Indian-controlled Kashmir region began in the 1980s and was driven primarily by local grievances, with Pakistan ultimately supporting several groups, experts say.
Among the Kashmir-centric rebel groups that emerged, some supported the region’s independence, while others hoped that the Indian side of Kashmir would be taken over by Pakistan.
In the 1990s, Pakistan provided training and other support to several extremist groups operating within Kashmir and Pakistan. This involvement was later recognized by senior Pakistani officials, including former military ruler Pervez Musharraf. The surge in rebellions in the 1990s forced the departure of Kashmir’s minority Hindus.
The rebellion began to ease around 2002 as Pakistan banned other major extremist groups, Rashkar e Taiba and Jaish e Muhammad, but Rashkar e Taiba continued to operate under the alias. A ceasefire was declared and the peace process with India was launched. This has shifted some observers related to US pressure after the post-9/11 intervention in Afghanistan.
After the attacks in Mumbai, India in 2008, the peace process collapsed, killing 166 people, resulting from Rashkar Aetaiba.
What is Kashmir’s current status?
Since the war last broke out in 1999, Kashmir has remained one of the most militarized places in the world. India and Pakistan have come on the brink of war several times, including in 2019, when suicide bombers in Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian soldiers.
In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked part of the Indian constitution, which gave Jammu and Kashmir semi-liberty. As some parts of India’s region are known, the move to fully integrate Jammu and Kashmir was part of his Hindu nationalist agenda.
Pakistan has condemned India’s move. However, violent unrest has also erupted in parts of Kashmir, which is ruled by Pakistan. The protests there reflect a general sense of dissatisfaction with Pakistan’s rule.
Direct rules by India undermined the outbreak of violence in parts of Kashmir, where it controlled. Voting resumed last year. But there are still complaints about Modi’s party, particularly how heavy Kasimiris’ life is.
Jung Yun contributed the report.
