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India and Pakistan Are Trying Hard To Avoid A Nuclear War. Can They Stumble Into One?

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India and Pakistan Are Trying Hard To Avoid A Nuclear War. Can They Stumble Into One?

First the obvious bad news: India and Pakistan have dialed up hostilities to the worst level since their 1999 war, when Pakistani troops crossed the Kashmir divide and Indian troops drove them back. There were perhaps 700 fatalities in that border war. This time around, a Kashmiri youth triggered hostilities by killing forty Indian troops in a suicide bombing. It’s widely believed that he had help from Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), because that’s what they do, and because the group claiming responsibility for the attack, Jaish e-Mohammad, is based in Pakistan.

This crossed a red line for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the run up to national elections, he authorized Indian Air Force jets to attack a target in Pakistan’s Khyber Pasthunwa Province. This was a big deal — the first time Indian jets attacked targets beyond Pakistan-controlled Kashmir since 1971.

Read the full article in Forbes.

 

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