India and Pakistan expanded their military conflict after a deadly terrorist attack in Caxemira, a territory for which both have been fighting for decades. The risk of a total war between the two countries has increased this week, despite the diplomatic attempts to flutter fights after an A, a region that has been a focus of disputes since 1947.
Civilians were killed on Wednesday, while India advanced more deeply in the Pakistani territory than on previous occasions. Shots and bombings occurred along the border disputed on Thursday, and on Friday, Pakistani drones attacked Indian soil, according to the Indian army.
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Here is what you need to know about longtime tensions between India and Pakistan, the attack on Caxemira, this week’s clashes, and attempts to resolve the conflict.
What are the latest news?
On Friday, the Indian army stated that Pakistan had released attacks on drones and other weapons throughout its western border, and had frustrated these attacks. Pakistan, in turn, rejected these allegations.
India responded by attacking the air defense systems and the radar of Pakistan. Pakistan accused India of illegal aggression and stated that his forces had toppled more than twenty Indian drones who had entered their airspace.
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In the rapidly evolving situation, the allegations on both sides could not be verified independently. Since Thursday, missiles and shots have been fired along the shared border, resulting in the death of civilians on both sides.
On Wednesday, the Indian government reported that its forces had attacked targets in the Pakistani territory. Pakistani military officers claimed that they had toppled Indian planes, adding that the jets had not invaded Pakistan airspace during the attacks.
More than 20 people were killed after six locations were hit on the side controlled by Pakistan Cashmir and Punjab province, according to the country’s military officers. At least 10 people have also been killed in bombing on the Pakistani side since the Indian attacks, as residents reported from India -controlled cashmire.
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What is being done to stop the fighting?
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with leaders from both countries on Thursday and emphasized the need for “immediate bleach”, according to state department reports.
A series of diplomatic meetings took place in New Delhi and Islamabad on the same date. High level diplomats from Iran and Saudi Arabia, crucial regional players with narrow ties with both conflict countries, were in New Delhi for meetings.
The diplomatic impulse was centered on the hope that the most intense military engagement could be contained in Wednesday’s actions. Both sides could claim Victoria, as India has advanced more deeply in Pakistan than at any time in recent decades, and Pakistan has toppled several Indian aircraft.
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Diplomats and analysts expressed some hope that the events of the day could offer a way out on both sides. The question now is whether Pakistan will decide to respond to India’s attacks on Punjab, the Pakistani heart, with its own attack on Indian soil.
What happened in the attack in Caxemira?
On April 22, militants fired and killed 26 people in the Baisaran Valley, Caxemira.
17 other people were injured. Except for a man who lived in Caxemira, a government survey revealed that all the dead were Hindu tourists. Reports of injured and survivors suggest that many were targeted after being asked about their religion. The attack, which occurred near Pahalgam, a city in southern India -managed cashmire, was one of the worst against Indians in decades.
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A group that calls itself a resistance front emerged on social networks to claim responsibility. Indian officers say the group is affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist organization based in Pakistan.
In Caxemira, Indian security forces began a comprehensive repression, holding thousands of people.
What is Operation Sindoor?
India has appointed its military operation of Operation Sindoor.
Sindoor, or red powder, is a traditional marker of the marital status of Hindu women. Married women use it in the division of their hair or forehead, and remove it if they become widows. During the terrorist attack of April 22, many women lost their husbands, who were targeted for being Hindus.
The choice of Operation Sindoor name by the Indian government signaled its intention to avenge widow women.
“Operation Sindoor” is also a nod for right-wing Hindu groups-many of whom favor more traditionally defined gender roles-that the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is listening to his demands for revenge.
However, some feminists criticized the use of the word “Sindoor.”
Hindu nationalism is predominantly driven by a male view of the world, said V. Geetha, a feminist historian who writes about gender, caste and class. “Women are in this as objects to be protected or as maternal figures urging their men to prove their heroism,” said Geetha.
What are the origins of the dispute?
The roots of the Caxemira conflict date back to the British Indian partition in 1947, which resulted in the creation of a predominantly Hindu India and a predominantly Muslim Pakistan.
In October of that year, the Hindu Monarch of the Princesco State of Caxemira, mostly Muslim, joined India, but Pakistan claimed the territory and sought to take it to the military force. An agreement mediated by the UN in 1949 established a line of ceasefire, dividing the cashmire.
After wars in 1965 and 1971, the ceasefire line became the control line, with India having about two thirds of Caxemira and Pakistan the rest. However, the dispute remains unresolved.
Did Pakistan support the militancy in Caxemira?
An insurgency in the part of India -managed Caxemira began in the 1980s, mainly driven by local complaints, with Pakistan eventually supporting some groups, experts say.
Among the insurgent groups focused on Caxemira that emerged, some supported the independence of the region, while others wanted the Indian side of Caxemira to be taken by Pakistan.
In the 1990s, Pakistan provided training and support to various militant groups operating in Caxemira and within Pakistan. This involvement was later recognized by several high Pakistani officers, including former military governor Pervez Musharraf. The increase in insurgency in the 1990s forced an exodus of the minority hindus of Caxemira, with many of them leaving for New Delhi and other cities after facing targeted attacks.
The insurgency began to decrease around 2002, when Pakistan banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, another important militant group, although Lashkar-e-Taiba continued to operate under fictitious names. A ceasefire was declared and a peace process with India has begun, a change that some observers associated with pressure from the United States after their post-11 September intervention in Afghanistan.
The peace process collapsed after attacks on Mumbai, India, in 2008, which killed 166 people and were attributed to Lashkar-e-Taiba.
What is Caxemira’s status now?
Since the war was last out broken in 1999, Caxemira has remained one of the most militarized places in the world. India and Pakistan arrived on the brink several times, including in 2019, when a suicidal attack on Caxemira killed at least 40 Indian soldiers.
In 2019, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked a part of the Indian Constitution that had granted semi-autonomy to the state of Jammu and Caxemira. The measure, which aimed to completely integrate jammu and cashmira, as the part of the India region is known, was part of its Hindu nationalist agenda.
Pakistan condemned the actions of India. However, violent agitations also broke out in Pakistan controlled cashmire, reflecting a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the Pakistani government.
The direct government of India was able to reduce the outbreaks of violence in the cashmir part it controlled, and the vote resumed last year. However, discontent with Modi’s party, especially by the way he oversees the life of the cashmires, remains.
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