Conflict expert warns of a huge risk not taking India-Pakistan seriously

The Strikes by India in Pakistan: An Attempt to Prevent War and Implications for the Indian-Indian War on Kashmir

The strikes by India were described by the Pakistan government as an act of war. It said the strikes and subsequent shelling killed more than 30 people. The two countries have entered multiple military conflicts since 1947, when British-ruled India was divided.

The strikes were described by the Pakistani government as an act of war. The Associated Press reported that 31 people had been killed in Pakistan.

In Kotli, a town in Pakistani-held Kashmir, the sound of multiple airstrikes sent students scattering from popular late-night food hubs. Residents say a house is affiliated with the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed. The strike killed a student at the university and her brother, according to an official at the hospital.

The India-Pakistan Interaction After a “Two-Year War”: Report on Mumbai, Srinagar, India

Praveen Donthi: It indicates that there’s going to be a serious escalation in the next few days or weeks. There is concern that the very first round of escalating between India and Pakistan has started on a larger scale than in the last crisis. It most likely happened in 1971 when both nations went to war.

Pakistan said a hydropower dam was one of the targets. That attack in particular raised hackles, because last month, India suspended its decades-old water treaty with Pakistan that divides six rivers between the two water-stressed countries. India announced a number of measures after the militant attack. The treaty’s suspension posed an “immense threat” to the people of Pakistan, according to the Pakistan’s representative to the U.N.

Other strikes landed in Pakistan’s Punjab province, including in a town called Murikde, some 30 miles from Lahore, the country’s second largest city. According to Michael Kugelman, who writes Foreign Policy’s South Asia brief, India hasn’t struck that deep in Pakistan since 1971. “What also stands out about these recent strikes is the scale and intensity of them,” he told NPR.

Indian authorities held dozens of emergency drills across the country to prepare its first responders for conflict. Volunteers rappelled from the top of a building as sirens went off and firecrackers erupted — apparently to imitate shelling in one drill in the Indian port city of Mumbai. Drills in the India’s capital New Delhi temporarily plunged the Parliament and several top government offices in darkness.

PraveenDonathi, senior analyst for india with the International Crisis Group, said that outside parties needed to intervene more forcefully to prevent military strikes. “This should have been stopped before it escalated,” Donthi said.

The people in the border towns reported hearing blasts on Thursday. Authorities announced blackouts along parts of the border, and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken to the Pakistani prime minister and the Indian foreign minister, urging “immediate de-escalation” by both countries.

There is a reporter in Mumbai, India. Bilal Kuchay contributed reporting from Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir, Betsy Joles contributed from Lahore, Pakistan, and Omkar Khandekar from Mumbai.

How will India strike in the upcoming war in Kashmir? Steve Inskeep: Afghanistan is trying desperately to end the war in the Middle East

It’s only the United States which can end these hostilities, which it did in 2019. Because power works. Other friendly nations in the region have been trying to help, but that’s not going to be effective unless the U.S. makes a full commitment.

Steve Inskeep: NPR’s Diaa Hadid reports that India struck earlier in the week. We had the feeling it would be it. Advisers trying to work it out. But now there are more strikes today. What do you think about that?

Inskeep: India says it’s striking air defenses in Pakistan. Let’s assume that’s true for purposes of this question. When you strike air defenses, it is often to clear the way for hitting something else, to clear out the airspace. Is there an expectation that India might strike again?

Donthi: Well, they say it’s an ongoing operation. They’ve already claimed to have hit nine sites, which they call “terror infrastructure.” There could be more strikes on the way. Pakistan will retaliate strongly because they are under immense public pressure, and there were no civilian casualties last time.

Donthi is referring to the revocation of Kashmir’s special status by India in 2019.

The World Needs to Take the War Against The Nuclear Powers: A Comment on the Prime Minister’s Address to the India-Pakistan Interaction

Donthi: That’s right. There have been tit-for-tat diplomatic moves followed by military strikes. We don’t know what’s going to happen next when there seems to be demand for a bigger strike. But this time around, it looks very serious. The world seems to think that it’s not serious. President Trump talked about how this conflict has been going on for many decades. In fact, he said “centuries,” which might make it sound like it’s a benign war that’s been going on and they’re bound to stop at one point. But that carries a big risk, huge risk, because both are nuclear powers and all it takes is a miscalculation or a mistake. The world seems to believe that neither of these powers is completely in control of the dynamics.

Donthi: Yeah, absolutely. President Trump claimed to be close to both the powers, which we know is true, though India and the U.S. have been growing closer in the past 10 years. There are historic ties with Pakistan as well. The U.S. can bring both the parties to the table.

He said that the US has historic ties with Pakistan and is very close to India, making it the best place to end the hostilities.

The international community needs to take the current conflict between India and Pakistan very seriously, said Praveen Donthi, an analyst for India with the International Crisis Group.

The Secretary of State made a call to the prime minister of Pakistan to encourage continued efforts to improve communications.

Indien and Pakistan trade attacks amid risk of war between nuclear states: David Nazisr and the detained men in Poonch, India

Nazir said his wife was spared, because she was pregnant. Nazir said they managed to flee and sleep in a park. A lawyer, Colin Gonsalves, who is representing the detained people, said the government appeared to have taken advantage of the situation to detain the men. Delhi police didn’t respond to the requests for comment.

Human rights activists said Indian authorities had arrested more than 30 refugees, including the elderly parents of David Nazisr, from their home in India’s capital city.

Narendar Singh, a local resident in the town of Poonch, said most of his neighbors had left after the shelling. Resident Sarfaraz Ahmad Mir said Pakistani shelling overnight killed his cousins, a twin boy and girl aged 11-years-old.

On Thursday, Indian residents piled by the roadside to watch security forces gathered around one fallen projectile in a field in the village of Makhan Windi, some 25 miles from the Pakistani border. The mood was more curiosity than fear.

“The potential for greater escalation is very high.” He said that both countries had very deep military capabilities. “They’ve barely touched the surface so far.”

Source: India and Pakistan trade attacks amid risk of war between nuclear states

On the problem of survival: a Pakistani Army statement in the wake of the Jammu, Achabal and Anantnag violence

By Thursday evening, blasts could be heard above the towns in Jammu, Achabal and Anantnag in Indian-administered Kashmir. An Indian army spokesperson, Suneel Bartwal, told NPR that districts along the line that separates India and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir “have been put on high alert. The power is out.

India’s information ministry said its armed forces “targeted Air Defence Radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan,” and added “it has been reliably learnt that an Air Defence system at Lahore has been neutralised.”

The army spokesman said that the drones had been engaged near a military target, and that the blasts were related to that. He said four army personnel were injured in that incident.

The groundskeeper at an upscale suburb of Pakistan heard a bang as he washed a car. He said “a few people were frightened,” but otherwise, people carried on. “Pakistani people are not cowards who hide in their houses. Will happen to all of us.

Pakistan’s army said that it had shot down several military drones, including one in the city that houses the general army headquarters.

“This is a serious, serious provocation,” Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhary said of the Indian drones in an English-language statement. India seems to have lost the plot. Rather than going on a path of rationality, it is further escalating in a highly charged environment.”

The U.S. consulate general in Pakistan ordered its staff to shelter in place. Indian and Pakistan airports are near the border. School was out in border areas of both Pakistan and India.

Parents on one Pakistani WhatsApp group exchanged emergency checklists that included baby milk powder and coloring books to keep kids busy. Stay calm and prepared. The list concluded, “may we all remain safe.”