Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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India and Pakistan are dangerously close to sanity — that is, they want to be good neighbours. It might be commonplace elsewhere, but mind you that we are talking about India and Pakistan. As the two nuclear neighbours once again explore the idea of a mutually-beneficial co-existence, I hark back to the recent history of peace overtures made by the two countries that were undone systematically. And if history is anything to go by, then it’s time for a spoiler — once again.

Some of the major events in the last decade or thereabouts:

February 1999 — Vajpayee visits Pakistan
May 1999 — Kargil War begins

March 2000 — President Bill Clinton visits India
March 2000 — 40 Sikhs are killed in Kashmir. Pakistan blamed

November 2000 — PM Vajpayee announce ceasefire in Kashmir
December 2000 — Terrorists attack Red Fort in New Delhi.

July 2001 — Musharraf, Vajpayee meet for a two-day summit in Agra
Decemer 2001 — Attack on the Indian parliament leaves 14 people dead

April 2005 — Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Bus Service starts
July 2006 — Indian trains bombed, over 170 killed

September 2006 — India redeploys 5000 troops from Kashmir
February 2007 — Samjhauta Express is bombed, killing 68 people

March 2008 — India formally joins TAP gap pipeline framework, making it TAPI.
July 2008 — Indian embassy bombed in Kabul, 58 killed. New Delhi blames ISI.

September 2008 — Zardari, Manmohan announce opening of several trade routes
October 2008 — Mumbai attacks commence, 160 killed

February 2010 — India offers new talks with Pakistan
February 2010 — Bomb blast in Pune kills 13

March 2011 — Gilani visits Mohali on the invitation of Manmohan Singh to watch the ICC World Cup semi-final.
**July 2011 **— Three terrorist attacks take place in different parts of Mumbai killing 21 and injuring 141.

:hmmm:

Pakistan has almost finalized MFN status for India. Both the countries opened another trade gateway at Attari on 13th of this month while India allowed FDI from Pakistan on the same day. India held an “India Show” in Pakistan in February and Pakistan staged a “Pakistan Fair” this month. Zardin said last week in Okara that he was seriously thinking about opening Head Sulemanki trade route with India.

As the two countries take more steps towards normalization of relations, every “Breaking News” splash on TV screen sends shivers down my spine.

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Very true

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

Even otherwise, I don't have much hope of normalization unless all issues are resolved:)

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

While relations between two countries have always improved during democratic rule in pakistan, they got worse during military rules.
this shows that general public of both the countries wants good relation with each other. now when pak establishment has no issues with normalization of relations between two countries , some "non state actors" have picked up the job of disrupting things.
i hope people like hafeez sayeed stay away from this.

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

^^
Could not agree more with you..
That said, I too feel that somebody somewhere is plotting...

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

Pakistan and India were very close to Siachen and Kashmir breakthroughs in Musharraf's time. Similarly, Sharif and Vajpayee also did their bids to get closer.

But there seems to be a third force which wants to maintain the status quo and wants neither peace nor war between the two countries. And this third force doesn't necessarily have to be the military or militants alone, this third force might be sitting on a different continent as well.

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

Good analysis, Amal. Digging under the facades and looking through smokescreens.

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?


please don't deprive us of your speculation.

don't be afraid of CENTCOM bhai. he seems like a nice guy.

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

^ What I said is not even speculation, it's only my views. I would love to know if normal or good Indo-Pak ties suit the US well. On the other hand, I can argue in the favour of tense Indo-Pak ties suiting Washington more than peace.

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

This is just fear mongering and spreading baseless conspiracy theories! What the US wants is Pakistani forces to mobilize in it's Northwest against the Taliban and to abandon Pakistan's 'strategic depth' strategy.
This will only happen if Pakistani forces redeploy from positions near India, and Pakistan's defense posture takes a different stance. Both can only happen if India and Pakistan come to some sort of consensus, and durable peace.

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

Thank you for your input.

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

LOL

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

It is easy to blame everything on Pakistani militants errorists whether it makes sense or not and ridicule any other explanation as conspiracy theory.

There still isn’t a sensible explanation of what these militants gained by shooting at the Sri Lanka team and destroying international cricket in Pakistan.

Such incidents are obviously sponsored and manufactured by Pakistan-haters to make specifically targeted points and forcing certain effects.

Roasting alive of Pakistanis on Samjhauta Express was also blamed on these militants by India at that time. Any contrary explanation would have also been shot down as conspiracy theory.

As far as Hafiz Saeed is concerned, he has denied involvement in Mumbai attacks and two Pakistani courts have acquitted him of these charges because of lack of any court-worthy evidence (beyond accusations) against him. Even the US State Department spokesman Mark Toner was embarrassed by journalists when they questioned him about the point of offering bounty money for an accused man against whom there was no hard evidence. Hafiz Saeed has publicly condemned the Mumbai attacks more than once – last time as recently as last month on TV, unless he was blatantly lying. He has also offered to appear in international courts on this matter.

[P.S. I would support the hanging of Hafiz Saeed if he is proven to be behind the deaths of so many Indians in Mumbai.]

Another thing that confuses me is why the Pakistani judicial team that visited India last month not allowed to question the officials that were involved in the Mumbai attack investigation or allowed access to question Kasab. What was the whole point of this wasted visit if India is keen on getting to the bottom of this inquiry and arriving at a final settlement/punishment of the culprits.

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

Leave non-state actors aside... what about India blocking Pakistani water by putting up dams on Pakistani rivers??? how long will Pakistani tolerate that????or should Pakistan tolerate that on the cost of Pakistan...

all these good gestures of India will go away once these dams are complete and operational... all it need a blast in India and there goes all peace talks...

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

India has not blocked any water from Pakistan. India has constructed power plants, but they conform to standards set in the 1960 Indus Water Treaty.

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

My prediction: Attack on Bangalore and total destruction of all the Microsoft, 3M, HP, Acer and whole lot of foreign company campuses. Can't even count how many birds that will be in one stone! Sonia being Italian and Manmohan being a pussycat there will be no retaliation. This is happening in 2013.

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

^ Tumhaare munh mein khaak, moorakh !

Shakal achchi ho to baat bhi achchi karni chaahiye. ;) ]

Pray for a good 2013 for all.

[And that would have to be some big stone.]

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

Let me guess.. It’s the script of the next bwood comedy movie right? :confused:

And since when did we have “democratic rule” in Pakistan?

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

  1. Yes. Agent Vinod 2, possibly.

  2. Right, it's a colony controlled by foreign brokered NROs and installed stooges.

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Re: Indo-Pak ties — Is something waiting to happen again?

You guys are just too good :k: