Editorial board
The tensions between India and Pakistan that followed the Pulwama attack last week have continued to escalate, with ripples building into waves as the harsh aggression from New Delhi continues. After a meeting of the National Security Committee on Thursday, Islamabad has said that the Pakistan Army has been authorised to act as necessary if any situation arises. The mounting war hysteria has been fanned by a hostile Indian media Indian leadership. In a press conference in Rawalpindi on Friday, DG ISPR Major-Gen Asif Ghafoor made it clear that while Pakistan was not preparing for war, but was prepared to react and deal with any aggressive act carried out against it. Of course, we must hope no such action is initiated. If anything, we need to hear louder calls for peace to prevail, and remind everyone that conflict rarely brings lasting benefits to the parties involved.
Prime Minister Imran Khan too has continued to stress the need for calm, renewing his call for dialogue over the recent sequence of events and has said once again that Pakistan is willing to conduct investigations if evidence is provided. Unfortunately, from the Indian side we continue to see a more aggressive stance – now with threats to cut off water supply from the three eastern rivers. Pakistan’s Ministry for Water Resources has already said, sensibly enough, that India is in fact already entitled to water from these rivers under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty and Pakistan would have reason to object only if water flow into the western rivers Jhelum, Chenab and Indus was tampered with.
The tone taken by New Delhi has already whipped up frenzy across the country. A Pakistani prisoner Shakirullah, held in Jaipur jail, has been killed following a brawl between prisoners. According to his family, Shakirullah was mentally unstable and had accidentally crossed the Line of Control from Sialkot in 2003. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of India has evidently noticed the extent of the insanity sweeping through the country. The court, hearing a petition filed by Kashmiri activists, has ordered protection for all Kashmiris in any part of India; 700 Kashmiris have already fled back to occupied Kashmir and Kashmiri traders have announced shutdowns and protests over violence directed against them and their businesses. The 2019 Cricket World Cup is also under threat with the Board of Cricket Control in India reportedly set to write to the ICC and demand Pakistan be barred from the contest.
The tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours are obviously a source of great unease throughout the region. Activists have called for both nations and especially India to wage a war against poverty and deprivation of people rather than create greater insecurity and thereby damage the welfare of citizens. We clearly need voices of sanity to be raised as loudly as possible on both sides of the border. Unfortunately, even the Indian opposition has so far hesitated to call for calm. Let us remind all that the wars fought between the nations in the past and other minor skirmishes that have taken place have benefitted no one. The key question of why so much desperation exists in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir needs to be addressed. But as yet we see no signs that this is happening – and that can only mean more days of disquiet.