India and Pakistan bog in the escalation – Liberation
Missile tests in Pakistan, defense exercises in India. Two weeks after theTourists attack in Indian cashmerethe tension between the two neighboring countries, with nuclear weapons and where around 20 % of the world’s population are concentrated, does not fall. « The situation is extremely dangerous, says Pakistan ambassador to France, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch. India uses an increasingly violent rhetoric and has placed its army on a warning state. She promised her population that she would hit Pakistan, she is in a gear. ”
New Delhi has just announced that defense exercises would take place on Wednesday. Among other things, they aim to test alerts in the event of an air attack, to cause civilians and students to protect themselves, to prepare the camouflage systems for critical infrastructure and to verify the effectiveness of the emergency services.
Islamabad on Tuesday proceeds to a new soil-to-ground missile test, the Fatah, with a range of 120 kilometers. On Saturday, she drew a first with a range of 450 kilometers, the distance between the Indo-Pakistani and New Delhi border. Never, since the 2019 crisis, when India had ordered an air strike on Pakistan after a jihadist attack which had killed 40 Indian paramilitary, Tensions had reached such a level. « I regret seeing (their) relations reaching a critical point, The United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, in New York said on Monday. (But) do not be mistaken: a military solution is not a solution. ” According to him, the two countries are « By the precipice ».
This took place on April 22 when at least three men killed twenty-five Indian tourists and a Nepalese in the city of Pahalgam, in the Cashmire region administered by India. Almost immediately, the Indian authorities claim that Pakistan is responsible. According to them, the attackers belong to the resistance front, an active group in the area considered as an extension of the Lashkar-E-Taïba, a jihadist group which had committed the Bombay attacks in 2008. Pakistan denies any involvement.
« The Indian government has accused us even when the emergency services had not arrived in Pahalgam, says Mumtaz Zahra Baloch. We have nothing to do with this attack. They try to hide their own failures while more than 700,000 of their soldiers are deployed in this region. It is essential that an investigation carried out by independent experts is ordered. They will show that we have nothing to do with it. ” India then decides to cancel the visas of Pakistani nationals and gives them a few days to leave the country. Pakistan takes on a similar measure in stride. The diplomatic representations of each of them are reduced to a minimum.
But the ultra -nationalist Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, goes further: he decides to break the bilateral treaty of 1960 which governs the distribution of industrial waters which pass through cashmere to irrigate Pakistan. Cutting their flow would constitute « An act of war », denounces Islamabad. On Tuesday, the Pakistani authorities accused their neighbor of having changed the flow of the Chenab river, one of the three placed under the control of Islamabad under the 1960 treaty.
The calls for the calm of the international community have yet given nothing. Iran, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi, was expected Thursday in New Delhi after a visit to Islamabad, proposed to act as a mediator, just like Saudi Arabia. « Whoever can lower the tension is welcome, » Explain Mumtaz Zahra Baloch. You must convince India to cancel the alert of its army. ”
