"Atop an armored truck, a flak-jacketed member of India's Border Security Force stands watch over Srinagar's busiest intersection. Since separatist fury exploded in 1989, New Delhi has committed as many as 400,000 army and paramilitary troops to the region. 'In the valley,' says Kashmiri journalist Surinder Oberoi, 'violence poisons everyday life.' Death toll estimates for the decade range from 24,000 to 80,000." From Times Online:
India and Pakistan traded blame yesterday after their troops fought a 16-hour gun battle across a disputed border in Kashmir in what Delhi described as the most serious violation to date of a 2003 ceasefire agreement.
It was the latest in a series of violent incidents that threaten to undermine a four-year peace process between the neighbours, which have fought three wars since independence in 1947. Both countries tested nuclear weapons in 1998.
The Indian Army said that the battle began when between ten and twelve Pakistani troops crossed the line of control (LOC) between the two sides and shot dead an Indian soldier in the mountains north of Srinagar, Kashmir's capital.
My Comment: You would think that even knowing that your neighbor India has suffered from dozens of terrorist bombings this past weekend, the Pakistani Army would decide it would probably not be in their interest to inflame the Indians even more by going out of their way to provoke a gun battle with them as well as issuing threats against their Government. But that is exactly what they went about doing.
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