November 15, 2020
Is India-Pakistan Conflict Eternal?
By Syed Rifaquat Ali
Is the India-Pakistan conflict, raging since 1947, eternal? There have been military clashes at regular intervals over disputed Kashmir and both the countries are not willing to budge from their rigid posture.
Last Friday (November 13) the troops of both countries clashed at the Line of Actual Control (LoC) and more than a dozen people, mainly civilians, were killed and a score of people injured.
The Voice of America (VOA) reported that "Pakistan and rival India say fierce military clashes across their frontiers in disputed Kashmir have killed at least 13 people and wounded many more on both sides with each country accusing the other of initiating the fight.
Officials and Kashmiri villagers reported that Friday's skirmishes, however, were among the worst and most widespread they had witnessed in recent months." The bone of contention is Kashmir.
While India and Pakistan are constantly engaged in military conflicts,the civilians in Kashmir are suffering unprecedentedly.
Life in Kashmir today is nothing short of hell. But the irony is that neither the prime minister of India nor Pakistan understand this gloomy and disturbing situation. And both countries are suffering economically, hampering the progress in every field.
Both India and Pakistan are spending billions of dollars in defense to strengthen their military might at the expense of the exchequer. When two countries are on a warpath, millions of people lose their lives.
And there is destruction all around. Look what happened in the Great War (WW1). Sixteen million people lost their lives., And in WW11, fifty million people died, and 28 million people died from war-related diseases. In Vietnam war, two million people died.
During Bosnia War, the most devastating conflict in Europe, thousands and thousands of people died.
During Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, 15000 Soviet soldiers were killed and 35,000 wounded, shockingly, two million Afghan civilians were killed.
History is replete with such horrifying and devastating instances of war and its aftermath. Narendra Modi and Imran Khan should take a lesson from history for the betterment of their countries.
By now, India and Pakistan would have immensely developed economically, but for the strained relations over disputed Kashmir. People in India and Pakistan have suffered beyond comprehension. Enough is enough.
The fight over Kashmir must stop forthwith and leaders of both India and Pakistan should discuss across the table to overcome the impasse which is an impediment in the progress of both India and Pakistan.
If East and West Germany can unite, India and Pakistan can too, provided there is a will. East Germany, as you know, was Leftist, while West Germany was capitalist. Both countries were divided by the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall was demolished and East and West became unified Germany with one ideology.
Since 1947, Indian and Pakistani leaders never made any serious effort to solve the Kashmir problem which is on the boil till date. Modi and Imran Khan can sit down and overcome the impossible for the good of people in India and Pakistan.
Mohammad Ali Jinnah said: impossible is the word unknown to me. It is not impossible to solve the Kashmir issue. If there is a will, there is a way, if Modi and Imran Khan can follow this dictum.
Narendra Modi and Imran Khan will leave a name in the history of mankind if they solve the Kashmir problem as greatest ever statesmen of our era.
Let Kashmir not be a ground for eternal conflict between India and Pakistan. Let us live in peace and harmony and for the good of people in the Asian continent.
Syed Rifaquat Ali is JoA correspondent in Sydney
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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