Indian Forces In Kashmir example essay topic

Over the past few years America has experienced a terror shock throughout its lands and hearts. In retaliation to this terror America has waged two separate wars, one in Afghanistan the other in Iraq, while keeping the anti-terrorism campaign slogan going. The question of why surely pops into most people's heads. There are many other terror lead wars going on throughout the world that desperately need a hand to resolve. Why then is Iraq such a huge deal? Was it really such a huge necessity to destroy a countries government?

Or was the necessity for the oil and riches that our already rich nation seeks? High in the Alpines, the stubborn armies of India and Pakistan have faced off for nineteen years on the Siacher Glacier, the world's highest battleground and a flash in the deadly dispute over Kashmir. On a strip of shattered rock laid out between two of the highest mountain ranges on earth lays the Siacher Glacier, the largest Alpine glacier on earth, nearly two trillion cubic feet of ice, a war is taking place. But why wage a war at 19,000 feet? What does one have to gain? Not land, or riches or political power still play a role in this fifty-year battle but more importantly pride which is all the Indians and Palestinians have left.

The most critical section on the 18,000 mile border between India and Pakistan is a 450-mile line that cuts through the valleys and mountains of Kashmir. Here, for more than half a century, at least 500,000 Indian and Palestinian troops have faced off. In 1965 and again in 1971 the armies fought two conventional wars, both of which Pakistan lost. Since the late eighties, the border has also been a focus of brutal guerrilla-style conflict.

While thousands of Islamic militants trained in Pakistan have crossed the border to wage Jihad, Indian forces in Kashmir have imprisoned, tortured, or executed hundreds of civilians suspected of collaborating with the militants. In the past fourteen years, more than 56,000 Kashmir's have died. These facts alone would probably qualify it as the most dangerous border in the world, and it has the potential to turn into or trigger a nuclear holocaust. In 1992, the US central intelligence agency (CIA) concluded that Kashmir was emerging as the most likely place on earth for a nuclear war to break out. John Pike director of global. security. com, an independent think tank based in Virginia said, "I don't think we " re close to a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. I do know however that we " re closer to a nuclear war between those two countries than any other pair of countries on the planet and everybody has to keep that in mind when you look at war between those two states".

This seemed like it was to come true in the early spring of 1999, when 800 Pakistan supported militants seized a 17,000 foot ridge overlooking the cities of Kargil and Dr as in Indian controlled Kashmir. They began bombing a vital Indian military road that connects two strategic cities of Srinagar and Leh also the Siacher Glacier. India responded with full force and by early May of 1999 there was heavy fighting along 100 miles of the border. Only twelve months earlier, India and then Pakistan had each carried out successful nuclear detonations for the first time.

By July 4th, when the Clinton administration forced Pakistani Prime Minister Nau as Sharif to back down, both sides were reportedly on nuclear strike alerts. The start of the larger conflict can be precisely dated to midnight on August 15, 1947, when Britain's India Empire was officially partitioned into the new nations of India and Pakistan. The upheavals of this partition produced on of the largest migrations of refugees in modern history, some ten million, people and the slaughter of as many as one million. Hindus, Silos, and the Muslims as neighbor-killed neighbor.

Kashmiris Human Rights Abuse Figures From January 1997.52,000- Kashmiris killed most of them between the age of 15-35.26,225- Seriously injured. 50,000- Imprisoned without trial. 47,000- Forced to leave Kashmir. 11,000- Women widowed. 800- Summarily executed since 1992.6- Human rights activists assassinated. 8- Journalists assassinated.

31,000- Shops / houses / schools burnt or destroyed. 175,000- Kashmiris (Hindus and Muslims) made homeless and destitute through systematic acts of wanton destruction and arson by Indian occupation forces in Kashmir since 1989. Another casualty was the costly state of Kashmir, which had a Muslim majority population ruled by a Hindu Maharajah and wood soon became the object of a blood tug-of-war battle. This is when it all started and as of May 2003 it has yet to stop. When the first round of fighting ended in January 1949, two-thirds of Kashmir was in Indian hands, including Jammu, the Buddhist region of Lada hk and the biggest prize of all the legendary vale of Kashmir. Pakistan got the regions of Gril git and Pakistan, which are often called the northern territories plus a small section of southwestern Kashmir...

Kashmir is one of the conflicts implicated in the current "war" of the United States and its allies against certain forms of radical Islam. A long-term solution to the conflict in Kashmir cannot be found without consideration of the wishes of the Kashmiri people. The three-option plebiscite, giving Kashmiris a choice among accession to India, accession to Pakistan, or full sovereignty, is an avenue that must be explored. The United Nations should serve as the organizer of such a plebiscite and should be the ultimate guarantor of its results. Convincing Pakistan and India of the ultimate wisdom of such a course can be part of current negotiations around the events in Afghanistan that now demand our attention.

The line of control stops well short of the Chinese border at a map coordinate known as NJ 9842. At the time of the cease-fire, no fighting had taken place beyond this point because the area was considered too remote. In the spring of 1984, after three decades of cross-border hostility, armies from both countries raced to seize two key passes on the Santoro Ridge, which originates not far from NJ 9842 and forms the western wall of the Siacher. Since then, the war has been fought largely in secret; outsiders or journalists rarely observe the front lines. Indian and Pakistani soldiers have erected between 120 to 150 outposts perched at elevations ranging from 9,000 to 22,000 feet. The locations of most of these outposts and there routes of access, even their names are closely guarded secrets.

The total number of soldiers stationed at these altitudes is somewhere between 8,000 to 10,000. The death toll is also classified with estimates ranging between 2,500 and 4,000 killed since 1984. Never before have troops fought for such extended periods of time in such extreme physical conditions. At least twice a week a man dies, but primarily from Avalanches, falls or high-altitude sickness. Late August of 2002, after securing access from both Pakistan and India, two American journalists were, for the first time ever, allowed into this secret and most hidden of military standoffs. Islamic militants had bombed the Indian parliament in New Delhi the previous December and tensions were, as always, running high.

By this time in August some one million troops were deployed along the border preparing for what could be the worst battle the world has ever known. When the journalists arrived in Pakistan, British and American diplomats had just succeeded in getting the two countries to step back from the brink of full force nuclear exchange. Back in the summer of 2002 US defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld said "These are not just larger weapons; they are distinctively different weapons, and war being what it can be, it can be unpredictable". He then went on to make it clear that the US would not act as a mediator over these issues. There is a possible nuclear war at hand and the US steps away. Now if Pakistan and India were the world leaders in foreign oil and America thought that it could profit largely from the dismissal of the powers to be in Pakistan and India would America have stepped into?

Of course, Kashmir has the threat of nuclear war on a grand scale, millions have died, atrocities have taken place and senseless fighting has taken place for half a century and still the US sits back and watches as the death count gets higher.