Paromita Das
GG News Bureau
New DElhi, 19th April. Bharat has emphasized time and time again that it cannot condone terrorism in order to strengthen its relations with Islamabad and that it will not tolerate cross-border terrorism. According to New Delhi, it is the responsibility of Islamabad to establish a friendly environment free from violence, hatred, and terror.
During a recent political event, Prime Minister Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh declared that “Bharat will not hesitate to kill terrorists in their homes”. After they made their remarks, Miller said that while the US would not intervene, “We do encourage both Bharat and Pakistan to avoid escalation and find a resolution through dialogue,”
Additionally, Rajnath Singh stated in an interview with ANI that Pakistan ought to take strong action against cross-border terrorism if its intentions are known.
In these latest remarks, the US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller stated that he will urge both countries to resolve their differences through communication.
Earlier, S. Jaishankar, the Minister of External Affairs, declared that Bharat was determined to combat any act of terrorism carried out from beyond its borders and that since terrorists do not follow laws, there can be no rules in the nation’s response to them. He criticized the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime for its handling of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, claiming that despite extensive government discussion, nothing useful was produced at the time because it was believed that attacking Pakistan would be more expensive than not attacking it.
Interacting at an event titled ‘Why Bharat Matters: Opportunity for young and involvement in global situation’, he posed the question of how to prevent future attacks of this nature if one does not respond to the current attack.
Jaishankar added that since 2014, the nation’s approach to combating terrorism has changed, as has its foreign policy. He went on to say that Bharat’s position would have been very different if the country had known from the beginning that Pakistan was engaging in terrorism, something Bharat should never tolerate.
Where does the conflict originate, though, and what role does the global superpower play in it?
Context
Bharat and Pakistan are at odds over the 1947 Bharatiya Independence Act-enacted division of British India. The Partition gave the various regions of Jammu and Kashmir the freedom to decide which country to join, creating a Muslim-majority Pakistan and a Hindu-majority Bharat. The maharaja, or monarch of Kashmir, first pursued independence at that time since the region had been ignored and ruled over for ages by advancing empires. But in the end, he consented to join Bharat in return for assistance against Pakistani herders who were encroaching, which led to the outbreak of the Indo-Pakistani War in 1947–1948.
Tensions grew until 1965, when a border control skirmish turned into a full-fledged war. Another short conflict broke out between Bharat and Pakistan in 1971 over East Pakistan; Indian soldiers assisted the region in gaining independence, leading to the creation of modern-day Bangladesh. With the 1972 Simla Agreement, which created the Line of Control (LOC), a temporary military control line that divided Kashmir into two administrative zones, Bharat and Pakistan sought to usher in a new era of bilateral relations. But when nuclear weapons were introduced in 1974, the struggle assumed a new dimension and the risks of any battle increased. Bharat conducted its first nuclear weapon test in that year, sparking a nuclear arms race that would see Pakistan accomplish the same feat two decades later.
In order to challenge Indian authority, Pakistan took advantage of a growing resistance movement in Bharatiya-administered Kashmir in 1989, rekindling tensions and sparking decades of intercommunal violence. The Kargil War began in 1999 when the Pakistani military crossed the Line of Control (LOC) in spite of a 1999 recommitment to it. While there has been a tenuous cease-fire between the two nations since 2003, they continue to exchange gunfire across the disputed border on a daily basis.
On November 26, 2008, Islamists besieged Mumbai, the capital of Bharat, raising concerns that Bharat and Pakistan will again move toward open warfare. One hundred sixty-six individuals were slain in three days, six of them Americans. The attack was attributed by both Bharat and the US to the militant organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is located in Pakistan and is said to have connections to Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Despite evidence pointing to connections between elements of the Pakistani government and LeT, Bharat responded impartially. By requesting assistance from the Pakistani government in prosecuting the attackers, the Bharatiya government chose a diplomatic approach rather than raising the stakes and opened the door for better relations.
After Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was invited to Bharat’s then-newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inauguration in 2014, there were expectations that Bharat would begin serious peace talks with Pakistan. Relations soured again in August 2014, following a brief period of optimism, when Bharat called off talks with Pakistan’s foreign minister following a meeting between the Pakistani high commissioner in Bharat and leaders of the Kashmiri separatist movement.
And the momentum toward substantive negotiations was dashed in September 2016, when 18 Indian troops were killed in the bloodiest attack on the Indian armed forces in decades at a remote Indian Army base in Uri, close to the Line of Control. The incident was attributed by the Bharatiya government to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), another group purportedly connected to ISI. In retaliation, the Pakistani military claimed that any such operation had occurred, while the Indian military declared it had conducted “surgical strikes” on terrorist camps within Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
A surge of border clashes occurred during this time, starting in late 2016 and lasting into 2018. Numerous people were killed and thousands of civilians were displaced on both sides of the Line of Control. Over 3,000 cross-border hits were reported in 2017, and in the first half of 2018, there were almost 1,000 reports. Five soldiers and a civilian were murdered in militant strikes against an Indian army post in the Jammu region in February 2018 and an Indian paramilitary camp in Srinagar in October 2017. Violent rallies and demonstrations against Bharat demanding an independent Kashmir also persisted during this time; in 2017, over three hundred persons were murdered in attacks and skirmishes, including militants, Indian security forces, and civilians.
Bharat declared in May 2018 that it would observe a cease-fire in Kashmir throughout the month of Ramadan for the first time in over two decades, following months of Indian military operations targeting both Kashmiri terrorists and protestors. Operations resumed in June 2018. A cease-fire along the disputed Kashmir border that would reinstate the parameters of the 2003 agreement was formally agreed to by Bharat and Pakistan later in May.
At least forty soldiers were killed in an attack on a Bharatiya paramilitary force convoy in Pulwama, Bharatiya-administered Kashmir, in February 2019. The bloodiest attack to strike Kashmir in thirty years was carried out, according to the militant outfit JeM from Pakistan.
In response, Pakistan launched airstrikes on Bharatiya-administered Kashmir in response to Bharat’s airstrikes targeting terrorist training sites within Pakistani territory. As the conversation intensified, there was an aerial confrontation in which Pakistan shot down two Indian military planes and detained a Bharatiya pilot, who was later freed after two days.
After tens of thousands of extra troops and paramilitary groups were sent to the area in August 2019, the Bharatiya government took action to remove Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Bharatiya constitution.
Kashmiris’ autonomy was essentially reduced when Article 370 was repealed, which took away their right to create their own property and settlement rules and forced them to follow Bharatiya property and customary law. The Modi government’s more aggressive strategy to incorporate Kashmir into Bharat under the Hindu nationalism concept was signaled by the scrapping of Article 370.
After Article 370 was revoked, thousands of people were imprisoned and internet and phone services were periodically cut off in Bharat-administered Kashmir for more than a year.
The Indian Supreme Court solidified the abolition of Article 370 in December 2023, eliminating the special status of Bharatiya-administered Kashmir, much to the chagrin of the indigenous Kashmiri population.
Role of United States
With varying degrees of success, the US has undertaken multiple attempts to mediate the tensions between Bharat and Pakistan. The United States and the United Kingdom held six rounds of unsuccessful negotiations to settle the Kashmir conflict in the 1960s. On the other hand, it is widely acknowledged that the Clinton administration’s involvement in the 1999 Kargil War prevented a nuclear exchange and established the foundation for the United States and Bharat’s relations after the Cold War. Due to its concurrent relations with Pakistan and Bharat, the United States is no longer seen as an impartial mediator in the conflict. Following 9/11, the U.S. and Pakistani governments shared a common interest in regional stability and counterterrorism. This served as the foundation for their alliance.
However, the alliance has been thrown into disarray by the United States’ exit from Afghanistan in 2021, which is made worse by Pakistan’s internal upheaval and growing links to China. On the other side, ties between the United States and Bharat have improved recently. Described as a “strategic partnership” in 2005, defense cooperation between the US and Bharat has intensified, especially during the Trump administration. There have also been failed international initiatives to defuse the tensions between Bharat and Pakistan, most notably through the UN Security Council.
Given the complexity of the situation and the ceaseless propaganda from Pakistan, Bharat is forced to make sure its diplomats are vigilant in order to ensure that they complete their assignments on time and tell world leaders who is who. Remorse is unnecessary when it comes to the values that the nation upholds. It just needs to resolutely and aggressively pursue its national aims and objectives.
The liberalism and secularism that the nation upholds must inspire pride in its citizens. If there are anomalies in the way things are operating, as was made evident by the unsettling events in Gujarat, we need to explain the socioeconomic complexity to the outside world and not be afraid to apologize when necessary.
Nation-building is a process that cannot be rushed. We should consider finding solutions to the urgent issues of socioeconomic disparities, poverty, hardship, and communalism. That is an unrelated issue. The way that Pakistan frequently hatches conspiracies is pertinent in this situation right now. This is crucial because the dubious games that Pakistan’s generals and Islamists play, including the proxy war, are directly responsible for 70% of the nation’s social, political, economic, and military issues.
This type of cancer can be cured without the need for vision. What is required are intelligence contributions, political will, the necessary resolve, and targeted security force action. It is not necessary to voice one’s fear of Pakistan in this situation; rather, one must summon the bravery to call the Pakistanis on their bluff.
It must be realized that the security forces must be granted unrestricted authority to combat terrorism in accordance with a clear-cut political directive. Naturally, all actions must be carried out with accountability and transparency. Having access to contemporary equipment is essential for combating extremists and preventing infiltration.
It is a truth that the high mountains and steep ravines make the border routes challenging to navigate. However, if the Indian security forces had carried out large-scale operations, they may have conveyed the correct message over the border, deterring the ISI and other organizations that were trying to get terrorists into the state.
The fact that Srinagar and New Delhi are still swinging back and forth between doubt and confusion to Islamabad’s benefit is equally unsettling.
Should the President of the US truly intend to curb international terrorism, the United States and other Western nations had to guarantee the complete dismantling of all Islamic extremist groups and militant organizations, without exception, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir. More should be done by American officials to address Bharatiya concerns than has been done thus far.
It is a reality that certain segments of Pakistani Islamic groups and the ISI still provide dual support to Al-Qaeda and ardent Taliban militants. To employ them in Kashmir first. To maintain the Pashtuns’ division, second. Because of this, Pakistan sees Kabul as an ally against New Delhi.
To break free from Pakistan’s orbit and its connection to extremists, Bharat will need to come up with its own solutions. The US’s involvement as well as the resolve and focused willpower of Bharatiya authorities will be crucial.
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