Peace in Kashmir?
Wouldn't it be truly wonderful if India and Pakistan could agree their way to peace between the two countries over their long-standing feud over Kashmir. Considering the fact that each of these countries is a nuclear power, considering the fact that each of these countries has faced one another time and again in wars, considering the fact that the disputed territory has already been the cause of a hundred thousand lost lives, it is time that reason triumphed over adversity.
Pakistan must first of all stop supporting Islamic militants which have been fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir, and which groups have provoked backlashes against the two-thirds Indian population in the region as Muslims attack their Hindu neighbours, where once they lived in mutual recognition and peace. The Islamists have wrought death and destruction in India proper as in the recent attack in Mumbai.
Pakistan has admitted to providing the Islamic militants with moral, political and diplomatic support in their violent separatist campaign in the Indian-ruled section of Kashmir, intent on disturbing the democratic sector and imposing Islamic rule. India would like Pakistan to cease and desist from giving support of any kind to the Islamists and to institute democratic rule in the Pakistani-ruled one-third of Kashmir.
That General Pervez Musharraf has offered to now abandon Pakistan's 60-year-long claim to the region and instead to co-jointly supervise it with India comes as a light at the end of a long, brutal and bitter war. Under General Musharraf's plan troops from both India and Pakistan would withdraw; the region would be self-governing and autonomous under joint supervision.
If both countries come to a mutual agreement this solution may restore relations between the two sectors of Kashmir and the people there finally would find peace in living co-operatively together. And just incidentally, the world would be comforted that a once-intractable situation might have been solved.
Because that just might give hope that other areas of the world facing similar seemingly intractable situations might also find workable solutions resulting in peace and harmony.
Pakistan must first of all stop supporting Islamic militants which have been fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir, and which groups have provoked backlashes against the two-thirds Indian population in the region as Muslims attack their Hindu neighbours, where once they lived in mutual recognition and peace. The Islamists have wrought death and destruction in India proper as in the recent attack in Mumbai.
Pakistan has admitted to providing the Islamic militants with moral, political and diplomatic support in their violent separatist campaign in the Indian-ruled section of Kashmir, intent on disturbing the democratic sector and imposing Islamic rule. India would like Pakistan to cease and desist from giving support of any kind to the Islamists and to institute democratic rule in the Pakistani-ruled one-third of Kashmir.
That General Pervez Musharraf has offered to now abandon Pakistan's 60-year-long claim to the region and instead to co-jointly supervise it with India comes as a light at the end of a long, brutal and bitter war. Under General Musharraf's plan troops from both India and Pakistan would withdraw; the region would be self-governing and autonomous under joint supervision.
If both countries come to a mutual agreement this solution may restore relations between the two sectors of Kashmir and the people there finally would find peace in living co-operatively together. And just incidentally, the world would be comforted that a once-intractable situation might have been solved.
Because that just might give hope that other areas of the world facing similar seemingly intractable situations might also find workable solutions resulting in peace and harmony.
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