“HOT LINES”
Tension grows between China and India over their
disputes in Kashmir. Who has an interest in this happening?
By Charles H.
Slim and Yossi Tevi
By the end of 2018, the
Indian forces occupying the Muslim territory of Kashmir carried out a wave of
arrests and violent repressions against the majority Muslim population (an
oppressed minority in India) as a form of collective scorn against the actions
of extremist groups operating against their presence in the area. The result of
that escalation reached its peak culminating on February 27, 2019[1]
when two Indian planes were shot down by Pakistani aviation marking a limit to
Indian movements over Kashmir.
The origin of
the conflict dates from the partition of the territory in August 1947,
separating the Muslims from the Indians, giving birth to Pakistan and the Union
of India (later the republic), for immediately in October 1947 the withdrawal
occurred from United Kingdom.
Since then,
intrigues and clashes between fanatics on both sides have been alternately
manipulated by British and allied intelligence agencies in order to maintain
inter-ethnic and religious discord to underpin London's necessary political
interference. In this context, the dispute over the Kashmir region remained, which
despite being populated by a Muslim majority, was and continues to be fully
claimed by New Delhi.
The images and
testimonies of the bestiality of the Indian forces were not new, only this time
they were framed in a well-directed state policy coming from the conservative
government of the Indian ultra-nationalist Narendra Modi who, since coming to
power, seemed determined to sweep the Muslim settlers of Kashmir.
Given this, the
government of Pakistan issued several warnings to its neighbor to desist from
continuing to commit the brutalities it was carrying out, but without success.
Even Delhi sent more military forces and fighter jets to bombard Muslim
villages in the area. Narendra Modi was confident that Karachi would do nothing
as India has the political support of the US and Britain, something that would
represent political and military protection in the event of a regional
escalation.
But his
calculation was wrong, and President Imran Khan, who also has a good rapport
with Washington (especially for his intelligence cooperation in Afghanistan),
immediately ordered planes to be sent to protect people in the border areas.
Thus, on the morning of February 27, 2019, a Pakistani F-16 aircraft patrolling
the Pakistani Kashmir airspace detected the intrusion of two Indian MIG-21
aircraft as they prepared to launch surface attacks. The result of the meeting
was the shooting down of the two Indian planes and the subsequent capture of
one of their pilots, thereby creating a humiliation for Modi and his government.
At that time New
Delhi realized that it had overreacted and decided to take a step back,
although it still continues with the brutal repressions against the Muslim
population[2].
 |
| Indian MIG-21 crashed |
Since the global
pandemic was declared, the quarrels and hostilities of the Indian forces in
Kashmir have not stopped and even plans for a more aggressive and aggressive
Indian occupation with the intention of appropriating the entire region have
been denounced. These plans do not amaze those who witness how the Indian
repressive forces operate and who are their allies. Since public beatings,
arbitrary arrests, torture and executions against Muslims are the daily bread
that the United Nations has been unable to control. And why? Quite possibly due
in part to the contacts and political influences that New Delhi has and that
are limited to ultra-conservative sectors of countries such as Great Britain
and Israel, he believes that he will have diplomatic support before
international forums.
For London and
Tel Aviv, the current Indian government has a special interest as a regional
partner for its particular strategic objectives.
Narendra Modi in
2017 was the Indian Prime Minister who visited the state of Israel with whom
they share geopolitical interests linked to Pakistan and its nuclear weapons
program. Beyond the fact that India has endorsed the Palestinian cause before
the United Nations, this has not hindered the good arms deals between the two[3]
and the development of geopolitical agendas on issues of greater importance
that unite them. In this sense, both are concerned to see a Muslim state like
Pakistan with nuclear warfare and worst of all, with the means to use them[4].
In this sense, Modi and his supporters have been carried away by the false
rhetoric that Tel Aviv and its supporters use mix religion and politics to
deflect the geopolitical missteps against Iran[5]
and other eminently territorial ones that it has with its Arab neighbors
(Syria) and especially with the Palestinians.
Modi's visit
showed that in addition to quickly getting along with his counterpart in Tel
Aviv, both governments established several agreements regarding defense,
intelligence (CyberWar espionage programs) and energy resources. In this way,
the Indian government deepens the gradual approaches that have been developing
since 1992, clearly placing itself against those sectors and countries, who, in
New Delhi's view, support “terrorism” such as Pakistan and the Organization for
Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that it actually supports the legitimate political
and humanitarian claims of Muslims in Kashmir.
Several violent
episodes helped to deepen these controversies and one of them was the peculiar
terrorist operation in Bombay in 2008 that, in addition to having no other
purpose than to kill as many people as they crossed the road, was endiligated
with terrorists from an unknown group; the matter reeked of something else[6].
 |
| Modi & Bibi joint for the war |
When Modi
achieved the electoral victory in 2019, he received the ardent telephone
greeting of his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu with whom he maintains a
close ideological and political coincidence represented in general features in
a separatist and segregationist nationalism, with similar political objectives
such as the expansion of his states at the expense of foreign territories,
something very contradictory for the “world's largest democracy”. Regarding the
latter, it must be clarified that this qualification is not necessarily due to
respect for equality and human rights or freedoms (something difficult to
explain in a caste society), but for the number of inhabitants it has.
In this sense,
Narendra Modi has not hesitated to face aggressive policies of appropriation of
territories in Kashmir using all possible inhuman and underhanded means.
Sources in the region have pointed out that the Israelis clandestinely operate
alongside their US partners in Kashmir, facilitating the trafficking of weapons
and explosives for cells of “Al Qaeda” and related groups trying to muddle - in
the eyes of world public opinion - the Pakistan's support for the legitimate
claims of Kashmiri and Indian Muslims.
In this way,
while these agencies induce the continuation of the attacks against Indian
targets, Israel and the United States provide India with programs to combat
terrorism.
At the same
time, it would not be surprising that among the ranks of the Indian police and
military forces operating in Kashmir there are Israeli military and intelligence
advisers, experts in torture tactics and suppression of opponents.
But not only
Pakistan is an obstacle to Modi's megalomaniacal plans and his Indian
nationalism. In the north with a border of 2.175 milesin length, it has China
with whom it has disputes over territories in icy areas of Ladakh Jammu and
Tibet located in the area of Kashmir ceded by Pakistan to China.
The incidents in
the Current Control Line located in the Galwan Valley had been escalating for a
few months ago, when the first skirmishes occurred between the Indian and
Chinese troops who did not stop throwing stones and taking themselves with
fists. The reasons for this episode were due to the fact that the Chinese army
red-handed Indian patrols, entering the territory administered by Beijin.
Even, the
Chinese denounced that it was not the first time that they discovered the
Indian troops raising checkpoints within their sector. Despite the fact that in
the Western media this went almost unnoticed, this was not the case for
Washington and London. The audience focuses on the importance of the region for
both, who seek to open entry corridors to China. Likewise, this was not an
anecdotal and curious episode, both in Beijing and Delhi they took it very
seriously and from that moment they began to reinforce their detachments on
both sides of the Line of Control. The clashes that took place between June 15
and 16 did nothing more than materialize those suspicions.
[1] Pensamiento Estrategico y Politico.com.
“INDIA Y PAKISTÁN”, https://pensamientoestraegico.blogspot.com/2019_02_24_archive.html
[2] The Guardian.com. “We are not
safe': India's Muslims tell of wave of police brutality”, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/03/we-are-not-safe-indias-muslims-tell-of-wave-of-police-brutality
[3] A statistic showed that between
2012 and 2016 almost 41% of Israel's arms production exports go to India.
[4]Pakistan has its own development of
medium and long range missiles. One of them is the "SHAHIN-3" which
as pointed out by a senior Pakistani officer in 2019 can reach Tel Aviv in just
12 minutes.
[5] From the beginning of 2014 Saudi
Arabia established secret talks with Israel in order to unseat Iran as an
influential actor in the Middle East.
[6] Considered the 9/11 of India, this
attack had a complex planning in which David Coleman Headley, a CIA asset
related to the Pakistani ISI, participated. The US did not want to straddle
India, preventing it from revealing the agency's implications for the operation.