The Economist: India and Pakistan are bracing for a military clash
During the last big military stand-off between India and Pakistan, in 2019, Mike Pompeo was woken by an urgent call at his hotel in Hanoi. Mr Pompeo, who was then America’s secretary of state, described in a memoir being connected to an Indian minister who said Pakistan was preparing a nuclear strike on India. Mr Pompeo […]
BBC: India and Pakistan are in crisis again – here’s how they de-escalated in the past
Last week’s deadly militant attack in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, which claimed 26 civilian lives, has reignited a grim sense of déjà vu for India’s security forces and diplomats. This is familiar ground. In 2016, after 19 Indian soldiers were killed in Uri, India launched “surgical strikes” across the Line of Control – the de facto […]
Why Pak army must now feel the heat
India must re-impose deterrence and reinforce security A lush meadow in Pahalgam was soaked in innocent blood this week, marking the most painful terrorist blow to India since 2008. As investigators confirmed Pakistan’s role in the massacre, 22/4 became another grim reminder that its western neighbour remains India’s primary adversary. Strategic neglect is not an […]
Book Excerpt: Essays in Mutual Comprehension
Manmohan Singh added poetically that this meeting was ‘an essay in mutual comprehension’ and that the two leaders would together write a new chapter in the history of the two countries. Musharraf presented Singh a painting of the school in Gah village (now in Pakistan), the Indian PM’s birthplace, and where he had had his initial schooling. On his part Singh again recited the Urdu couplets which he had read out to Musharraf in their phone conversation.
The Ex Who Won’t Go Away
An imprisoned Imran Khan directing street protests is a thorn in Pakistan army’s side. The political instability deepens Islamabad’s ‘polycrisis’. Pakistan’s Qaidi Number 804, its former cricket captain and PM, Imran Khan, gave another ʻfinal callʼ to his PTI cadre for an assault on Islamabad on Nov 24, exhorting his supporters to ‘fight till the […]
The Print: Pakistan foreign minister was in Delhi on 26/11. India’s only ‘retribution’ was expelling him
With telling revelations, memoir, and account of history, Ajay Bisaria’s Anger Management is a study of the diplomatic engagement between India and Pakistan.
Book Excerpt: A Grab at Kashmir
The 1965 war was born of 1962, which left us looking like bumblers…. We foiled Pakistan’s resulting adventure, doubtless an achievement, albeit limited, but it turned Pakistan to other means: fomenting dissidence in our Punjab, feeding subversion elsewhere, developing terror as an instrument of policy, apart from making life difficult in J&K, while scheming its way to nuclear power. All comprehensively demonstrating an undying obsession—doing India down, wresting J&K.
Explained: Balochistan’s unrest & its consequences for India
As Pakistan faces a rise in terrorist attacks over the past few years, its troubled Balochistan province was hit this week by a series of assaults that have resulted in over 70 fatalities. The coordinated attacks, possibly the most extensive of their kind in recent history, were carried out by the separatist Baloch Liberation Army […]
Khan’s out of jail, but it’s still advantage generals
Ever since his famous breakup with former army chief Bajwa- and public revelations by both about their rocky ‘same page’ government of three years- it was clear that the army could not afford an Imran 2.0 regime.
Pakistan back to being Pakistan
The trial court judge showed extraordinary alacrity in convicting Imran on the weekend, in what was seen in Pakistan as a ‘fixed match’. The ruling dispensation wanted the Imran problem out of the way before the assemblies are dissolved on August 9 and a caretaker setup takes over.