Indian and Chinese officers are
still discussing why twenty or so Chinese troops have been camped out
ten kilometers inside Indian Kashmir since the 15
th
. China says their troops are not inside India, something
India disputes. Neither country seems eager to escalate this, or resolve
it.
Indian communist (Maoist) rebels, reeling from several years
of growing pressure by special police battalions, are seeking alliances
with separatist rebels in the northeast. The only thing the Maoists and
the separatists have in common is hostility towards the Indian
government. But both groups are losing ground to government forces and
need whatever help they can get.
While the Pakistani Army is losing it power to act without
consulting the civilian government it does not appear that this will
change the long-term Pakistani military’s cooperation with and
sponsorship of Islamic terrorist groups. Too many Pakistani voters still
back Islamic radicalism as a cure for the corruption and bad government
in Pakistan. The U.S. has made it clear that as long as Pakistan
supports Islamic terrorists (a violation of international law) the U.S.
will keep operating its armed UAVs over Pakistan to hunt down Islamic
terrorists. This is also a violation of international law but the
alternative is to allow the terrorists in their sanctuaries to plan and
carry out attacks against Western targets. That is unacceptable in a
democracy. When given a choice, most people will vote to defend
themselves.
The Pakistani tolerance of Islamic terrorists has also made it
dangerous for democracy in the tribal territories. Candidates for the
May 11 parliamentary elections in the tribal territories have to take
extraordinary security precautions as they campaign in rural areas. The
Pakistani Taliban has been quite openly making war on the ruling parties
in the tribal territories, seeking to make it possible for pro-Taliban
politicians to be elected. At least one female candidate has withdrawn
because of death threats. While the Taliban consider democracy
un-Islamic, they believe having their own men elected will pave the way
for the desired religious dictatorship.
Decades of support for Islamic radicalism and terrorism has
hurt the popularity of the Pakistani military. The generals ignored this
trend for a long time but that is no longer possible. Civilian leaders
are less willing to tolerate whatever the military does and the courts
have become dangerously hostile. This is a major change for Pakistan,
especially since the military leadership appears divided over what to
do. The big question is when, or if, the army can be made to stop
supporting Islamic terrorists and its constant attacks on Indian border
posts and border patrols. The Pakistani military denies responsibility
for this violence, despite the obvious evidence about what it really
happening.
In southern (Karachi) and central (Kabirwala) Pakistan female
health workers administering polio vaccine to children were assaulted
and beaten by Islamic terrorists who oppose Western medicine. In Karachi
shots were fired. The Islamic militants have apparently decided to stop
trying to kill the health workers as that brought on too much police
attention and bad publicity.
Pakistani factory owners are complaining that the growing
electricity shortages will cost the country billions of dollars’ worth
of lost export sales. As the hours the electricity is turned off (load
shedding) increases factories simply cannot produce the products they
have overseas orders for. For decades government corruption has impeded
the construction and operation of new power plants and despite
predictions that these shortages would grow worse nothing was done.
April 22, 2013: In Pakistan the courts ordered the government
to release a list of journalists who received some two million dollars
in payments over the last two years. This was not widely reported in the
media, for obvious reasons. It’s been an open secret for a long time
that journalists, and favorable coverage, could be bought in Pakistan
and the government was often buying. Not all journalists are for sale,
but many, if not most are and few care to have details of their
relationships in this area made public. Technically the government
payments were for “legitimate expenses” but the reality was that
reporters were expected to produce pro-government stories to justify
their expense money. Government officials tried to defy the court order
by providing an incomplete list, which included the names of some
journalists who never got any money.
April 21, 2013: In the Pakistani tribal territories (North Waziristan) a roadside bomb killed four soldiers.
April 20, 2013: In the Pakistani tribal territories (Bajaur) a
suicide bomber was halted at the entrance to a hospital, where she
detonated her explosives and killed four people. What was unusual was
that the bomber was an elderly woman, who may have been coerced into
carrying a remotely controlled explosive vest.
April 19, 2013: In Pakistan former head of the military (and
military dictator from 1999-2008) Pervez Musharraf submitted to house
arrest. Musharraf had returned from exile recently to run for president
(“to save the country”) but misjudged the degree of popular hatred for
his years of military rule. This is the first time such a senior
military officer has been arrested. While there is still a pro-Musharraf
faction in the military, that faction was not powerful enough to
protect Musharraf from arrest. The courts have also barred Musharraf
from running for president and want to prosecute him for various illegal
acts while he was military dictator.
April 17, 2013: In the Pakistani tribal territories (South
Waziristan) an American UAV fired two missiles at a terrorist compound
and killed at least five of the terrorists there.
April 16, 2013: In the Pakistani tribal territories (Peshawar) a suicide bomber killed 19 people at a political rally.
April 15, 2013: In Indian Kashmir a platoon (20-30) of Chinese
troops crossed the disputed border with India and set up camp ten
kilometers into Indian territory. This was in the mountains at an
altitude of 5,500 meters (17,000 feet). This camp was soon discovered by
an Indian patrol, which did not confront the Chines but called for
reinforcements, which camped nearby and called for diplomats to talk to
their Chinese counterparts to clear up the situation. In this age of GPS
you can’t blame this sort of thing on getting lost.
In eastern India (Chhattisgarh state) police raided a Maoist
rebel camp and killed nine of them. The police had received a tip about
the location of the Maoist camp in this rural area.
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