Jammu and Kashmir is divided by a highly militarized "line of control." One-third of the state is controlled by Pakistan and the other two-thirds falls under the jurisdiction of India.

Indian defense minister George Fernandes said that the government of Pakistan was "directly responsible" for the deaths, and that the regime "trains young people to send them here to spread terrorism. What else can we expect from them." The regime in Islamabad denied any connection to the attack, saying that it provides only diplomatic support to organizations fighting India.

India and Pakistan have together amassed 1 million troops backed by tanks and heavy artillery along their 1,800-mile border since December, when a group of men launched an armed attack on India’s parliament building. Both sides are nuclear armed have placed their forces on high alert.

The U.S. administration has pressed the government in Pakistan to crack down on the activities of organizations opposing Indian rule in Kashmir and urged both sides to refrain from starting a military conflict. The Pakistani government has arrested several thousand people claimed to be associated with Kashmir opposition groups and banned five organizations.

As the tensions mounted over the past week, Bush dispatched assistant secretary of state Christina Rocca to New Delhi and Islamabad and announced plans to send deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage on a similar mission within a few weeks.

Rocca called the attack "pure, naked terrorism" and said that Washington is "worried about the continued mobilization of both armies facing each other. A spark could lead to an unintended conflict."

The Indian government is demanding that Pakistan take further moves to prevent attacks on its territory. Officials claim that "cross-border infiltration is being fueled by the redeployment of Pakistan militant groups and al Qaeda fighters," reported the Financial Times. In Islamabad Rocca "is expected to raise the issue of U.S. counter-terrorist operations in Pakistan," the paper noted. Washington has been pressing the Pakistani regime for a free hand in sending U.S. soldiers across the Pakistan-Afghan border in pursuit of Afghan forces, something Islamabad has resisted so far.

Since 1947, when the state of Pakistan was created by the departing British imperialists as a spearhead against the Indian revolution, India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars. The government in Pakistan has been armed and backed by Washington for decades, and the regime in Islamabad has remained a bulwark for imperialism against the interests of working people in the region. On the Indian subcontinent it stands as an obstacle to the battle by workers and peasants to address the unfulfilled tasks of the struggle for national unification.

Founded as an explicitly Muslim state, until 1971 Pakistan was made up of two parts separated by 1,000 miles. In addition to supplying arms to this regime, Washington included Pakistan in a 1954 military pact with Turkey, the 1954 SEATO alliance in Southeast Asia, and CENTO (the Central Treaty Organization) in 1955. CENTO also included the regime of the Shah of Iran, a close ally of Islamabad until he was deposed by the Iranian revolution of 1979.

The current government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf has closely collaborated with U.S. imperialism in its war against Afghanistan and continuing military operations there.  
 
Joint military exercises
The renewed tensions come as the United States and India prepare to commence their first joint military exercises in almost 40 years. The one-week operation by paramilitary and airborne troops from both countries is to be followed by joint army, naval, and air exercises later this year. U.S. navy ships have been regularly docking at Indian ports and New Delhi has joined Washington in joint "anti-piracy" patrols of the Malacca Straits, the world’s busiest shipping lane.

Since last September, when it lifted all remaining sanctions that it had imposed on India for testing a nuclear weapon in 1998, Washington has approved 20 orders by New Delhi for military equipment. This includes General Electric-manufactured engines that will power India’s combat aircraft project.

"India has a lot of new money to spend and a large proportion of it will be directed to U.S. suppliers," Jane’s Defence Weekly reported recently. India’s defense budget has been raised by 14 percent this year to $14 billion.

The state of Jammu and Kashmir, largely Muslim in population, is located on the northern edge of the subcontinent, wedged between China, India, and Pakistan. Following the imperialists’ partition of India in 1947 the Hindu maharajah of the province, backed by New Delhi, resisted popular demands for a referendum and decided to incorporate the territory into the new Indian state.

A war ensued, resulting in the division of the area between Pakistan and India. New Delhi agreed to hold a referendum on the status of the region, but later refused to allow the population to vote on the question. The government in Pakistan has since backed groups based on its soil who are fighting New Delhi. Over the past decades some organizations have called for independence, while others have demanded incorporation into Pakistan. Islamabad has favored the latter groups in its military and financial backing.

Press reports indicate that some 30,000 people have died in the conflict since 1989. In just the first four months of this year 277 civilians were killed in Jammu and Kashmir, compared with 285 in all of 2001 and 239 in 2000. Some 581 people claimed by India to be supporters of the insurgency have been killed so far this year, up from 407 in 2001.

Since January, 200 Indian soldiers have died from detonation of land mines along the border, and more than 200 Indian security forces personnel have been killed.

The conflict is one example of how the imperialist partition of India partition not only divided the subcontinent, but also helped divert the struggle against imperialism and leave working people more vulnerable to demagogic appeals by their national rulers.
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. out of Indian subcontinent  
 
 
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