Kashmir: Born To Fight
"The most militarised zone in the world isn't in Iraq or Syria. It's in Indian-administered Kashmir, a region wracked by a separatist insurgency for almost 30 years.
More than 600,000 soldiers are stationed here, accused by activists for decades of murder, torture, rape and other abuses. But Kashmir may have reached its tipping point. The government's violent crackdown on unarmed protestors has fueled unrest in recent months.
Separatist leaders are now warning that the government’ s iron-fisted rule is radicalising Kashmir’s young men.101 East asks, is India's hardline policy in Kashmir creating a new generation of fighters?"
|  | �� �� Kashmir: Born To Fight l 101 EastThe most militarised zone in the world isn't in Iraq or Syria. It's in Indian-administered Kashmir, a region wra... |
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Bilawal Bhutto condemns Indian intrusion
"ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has strongly condemned the Indian intrusion in Pakistani territory and issued the following statement on Tuesday.
“India has chosen to respond to a homegrown, organic freedom fighters attack in Indian occupied Kashmir by conducting an airstrikes on Pakistan soil for the first time since 1971. This outrageous and unprecedented act of aggression should be condemned internationally. Pakistan is well within our right to retaliate.
“The whole nation stands with our brave soldiers who are ready to respond to any scenario. They risk their lives on a daily basis to keep us all safe. Atrocious that the extremist Hindutva government of the so-called largest democracy in the world would risk provoking war between two nuclear armed states, to feed war hysteria at home and help with Modi’s re-election campaign.”
PPP Chairman stated that he was pleased that the opposition has called for a joint session of parliament, the appropriate forum for all decisions to be made. While the whole nation will stand united with whatever decision is taken it is important for Pakistan to be cautious."
| | Bilawal Bhutto condemns Indian intrusionIndia has chosen to respond to a homegrown, organic freedom fighters attack in Indian occupied Kashmir by conduc... |
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India and Pakistan may not go to war. But there’s trouble ahead.
|  | Analysis | India and Pakistan may not go to war. But there’s trouble ahead.https://www.facebook.com/ishaantharoor Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors are at their highest in two decades. |
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Drumming the beats of war?
"Last week, a suicide bomber killed 40 Indian soldiers in Kashmir. An armed group based in Pakistan, Jesh-e-Mohammed (JeM), has claimed responsibility for the worst such attack in more than 70 years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in New Delhi has accused the Pakistani government of backing the group and many Indian news outlets, have gone further, calling for a crackdown on so-called "anti-nationals" at home, who they describe as "terrorist sympathisers".
"Every time an incident like this happens, before the government can respond, before the army can respond, before the military responds, the media immediately jumps the gun, asking for war," points out documentary filmmaker Sanjay Kak.
There is no denying where the demand for justice comes from or the news value of the story because, for the Indian media, this story ticks so many boxes: Kashmir, Pakistan and the army. The attack came just as campaigning begins for a national election that is just months away, something the Hindi right and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) capitalising on.
"What they've basically done is they've very quickly kind of mobilised their forces to essentially see if they can actually shape this, and hammer it into kind of their classic narrative of Hindus versus Muslims. The Muslim as the figure of the outsider, the Congress is a weak party, liberals as you know 'anti-national traitors' and so on," according to Rohit Chopra, associate professor at Santa Clara University.
What makes Indian news channels unique is that there are so many of them, far more than any other country. And as political debate in India has grown more polarised, often over Prime Minister Modi's brand of Hindu nationalism, TV output has become more debased. And when that kind of coverage is fed into the Indian social media messaging machine, the effect can be dangerous.
"It's interesting how social media and television - at least some news channels - have actually been hand in hand when it comes to setting the narrative for the current mood," says journalist Kunal Purohit.
Between WhatsApp, Tik Tok, Share Chat, Line and Hike, India is awash with social media and messaging apps. There are 200 million users on WhatsApp alone, making the country the app's largest domestic market. And when WhatsApp changed its rules recently, placing new limits on the forwarding of group messages, it did so after first field-testing those changes in India, an implicit admission of the social and political problems WhatsApp has exacerbated there.
With elections coming and the BJP leading the way, all parties now want to make the most of the apps at their disposal and are doing so without voters necessarily realising they're being played, whose messages they're reading."
| | �� India's media: Drumming the beats of war? | The Listening Post (Lead)Last week, a suicide bomber killed 40 Indian soldiers in Kashmir. An armed group based in Pakistan, Jesh-e-Moham... |
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Jet downing raises India-Pakistan tension
"The challenge for India and Pakistan now is to contain the escalation before things get completely out of control.
It is almost unprecedented for two nuclear-armed countries to carry out air strikes into each other's territories.
"We are in uncharted waters," Husain Haqqani, the former Pakistani ambassador to the US and adviser to three Pakistani prime ministers, told me late on Tuesday.
An Indian defence analyst believes Indian security forces will now have to be prepared for a "full spectrum of conflict".
However Daniel Markey from Johns Hopkins University in the US says we are "several steps away" from nuclear escalation.
A further escalation, he believes, will happen if Pakistan's "next step were to raise the stakes by hitting Indian civilian targets".
|  | Jet downing raises India-Pakistan tensionIndia says it is investigating Pakistan's claim to have captured one of its pilots. |
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When 12 warplanes locked on to the target; Pakistan says it has shot down two Indian aircraft in its airspace
NEW DELHI — Pakistan said it shot down two Indian aircraft inside its airspace and launched strikes on Indian-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday.
| | Pakistan says it has shot down two Indian aircraft in its airspacePakistan also hit targets in India-controlled Kashmir a day after India sent jets into Pakistani territory for t... |
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When 12 warplanes locked on to the target
"The pre-dawn raid across the border saw IAF deploy precision bombs
In the early hours of Tuesday, 12 Mirage-2000 combat jets of the Indian Air Force (IAF) armed with Israeli Precision Guided Munitions (PGM) took off from their Gwalior airbase on a crucial mission, cloaked in secrecy. The multirole fighter aircraft flew over Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir before crossing into Pakistani airspace and striking the largest training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in Balakot inside Pakistan.
“The terror launch pads along the LoC were moved deep inside after the Pulwama attack,” a senior defence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The camp in Balakot, which was targeted, is JeM’s major training camp. It’s in proper Pakistan itself, close to Abbottabad infamous because of Osama bin Laden.”
| | When 12 warplanes locked on to the targetThe pre-dawn raid across the border saw IAF deploy precision bombs |
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