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A senior American diplomat says the United States wants India and Pakistan to restore a mutual truce in Kashmir to de-escalate tensions over the disputed Himalayan region.

The statement by Alice Wells, the outgoing principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, comes as Indian and Pakistani troops are locked in almost daily skirmishes across their de facto Kashmir border, known as the Line of Control.

On Thursday, Islamabad said it had again summoned a senior Indian diplomat to the foreign ministry to protest continued alleged cease-fire violations by India’s military forces resulting in fresh civilian casualties in the Pakistani-ruled part of Kashmir.

Intensified hostilities between the nuclear-armed rival nations over the past year have rendered ineffective a mutual 2003 Kashmir truce and raised fears the tensions could escalate into a broader conflict between Pakistan and India. The nations have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, which remains the primary source of regional tensions. Both India and Pakistan claim the region in full.

“We certainly support practical steps that India and Pakistan can take to reduce tensions such as restoring the 2003 Line of Control cease-fire while continuing to press Pakistan to take credible steps to dismantle terrorist groups,” Wells told a seminar Wednesday through video link organized by Washington-based Atlantic Council.

For its part, India alleges Pakistani troops commit cease-fire violations to help militants trying to infiltrate Indian-Kashmir to foment separatist violence there, charges Islamabad rejects.

US-Pakistan ties

Wells noted in her speech that the Trump administration’s “broader and healthier engagement” with Pakistan has encouraged the South Asian country to take “constructive” steps to counter regional terrorism.

“I welcome the important statements that Prime Minister Khan issued, that there is no role for non-state actors, that anybody who crosses the border into Kashmir is an enemy of Pakistan and an enemy of Kashmiris,” noted the American diplomat.

Wells hailed the recent prosecution and conviction of an Islamic cleric in Pakistan who is accused of masterminding the 2008 deadly attacks in Mumbai. Washington has offered a reward of $10 million to bring the cleric, Hafiz Saeed, to justice, though he denies the charges.

“I don’t term these steps irreversible, but they are important steps,” Wells said. She also noted economic regulations recently enacted by Pakistani officials to counter money laundering and curb terrorist financing to groups involved in cross-border terrorism.

A traditionally strained relationship between India and Pakistan has deteriorated since last August when New Delhi unilaterally stripped autonomy of Indian-administered part of Kashmir and imposed a strict security lockdown, coupled with a communications blockade in the majority-Muslim state to deter dissent. The restrictions have since been partially eased.

Islamabad rejected the move, saying Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute under a United Nations Security Council resolution and neither side could unilaterally alter the status. India has rebutted the criticism, describing its Kashmir-related measures as an internal matter. 

Afghan peace and FATF

Wells also praised Pakistan’s “important” role in facilitating U.S. efforts to end the war in Afghanistan, America’s longest, and promote a political reconciliation between the Taliban insurgency and other Afghan groups.

This role is believed to have given Pakistan crucial backing of Washington at global financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, in order to borrow much-needed funding for the country’s struggling economy.

Pakistani officials say U.S. support also played a role in securing much-needed relief from the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog against money laundering and terrorist financing.

The FATF has placed Pakistan on its watch list of countries with weak regulations to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. It requires Islamabad to complete all tasks in a proposed action plan to avoid being blacklisted by FATF, which would make international business dealings almost impossible for Pakistan. 

By: Ayaz Gul | Voice of America

IANS

Thiruvananthapuram: Muslims across Kerala will celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr on Sunday, clerics from the community said on Friday.

They said that with not sighting of the moon on Friday and the 30-day Ramadan ending on Saturday, Eid-ul-Fitr in Kerala will be celebrated on Sunday, May 24.

There will be no open prayer sessions on Eid-ul-Fitr since lockdown norms are enforced in the southern state.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan extended his greetings to all Muslims and said that all lockdown norms and other rules will have to be followed.

He, however, said that in case Eid-ul-Fitr is celebrated on Sunday, there would be some relaxations. For the past two weeks, on Sundays, people are asked to remain indoors and only essential shops like medical stores are allowed to open.

Muslims account for 88.73 lakh of the 3.34 crore population in Kerala.

–IANS

Border incidents are at their highest since 2015, senior Indian security officials said. The two sides held talks on Tuesday aimed at lowering the temperature between the nuclear-armed neighbors, however neither army was willing to compromise, the officials said, asking not to be identified citing rules on speaking to the media.

By: Bloomberg | HT

Talks between the Indian and Chinese military to end escalating tensions along their disputed border have ended in a deadlock as the fragile peace shows signs of breaking down.

The armies are currently on a high-alert at two locations along the Line of Actual Control — the 3,488 kilometer (2,167 mile) unmarked boundary between India and China. Additional troops have been rushed to the border by both sides, the officials said. They are facing each other at the Galwan River, which was one of the early triggers of the 1962 India-China war, and at the disputed Pangong Tso — a glacial lake at 14,000 feet in the Tibetan plateau, portions of which are claimed by both.

The inconclusive talks came as the US issued a tough statement on China. In Washington, senior diplomat Alice Wells said the clashes were a “reminder that Chinese aggression is not always just rhetorical.”

“Whether it’s in the South China Sea or whether it’s along the border with India, we continue to see provocations and disturbing behaviour by China that raises questions about how China seeks to use its growing power,” Wells, acting assistant secretary for South and Central Asia, said on a briefing call to reporters on May 20.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not immediately availabe for comment, however spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a regular briefing in Beijing on May 13: “We urge the Indian side to work with China, refrain from taking any complicating moves so as to create enabling conditions for the development of our bilateral relations and peace and stability in border areas.”

“Any suggestion that Indian troops had undertaken activity across the LAC in the Western Sector or the Sikkim sector is not accurate,” Anurag Srivastava, the spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Thursday. “All Indian activities are entirely on the Indian side of the LAC. In fact, it is Chinese side that has recently undertaken activity hindering India’s normal patrolling patterns.”

Contentious Road

According to data from Indian security officials, the India-China border has been unusually active since last year with a 64% rise in incidents since 2018. Along the sensitive “Eastern Sector” — from Bhutan, stretching east along the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh — incidents doubled last year in comparison to 2018. China claims a 2,000-sq km stretch of land in this sector, which is defended by at least 20,000 Indian soldiers along with paramilitary forces.

Border incidents in the “Western Sector” — stretching from northwestern Tibet, along the Indian state of Uttarakhand and the Union Territory of Ladakh, stretching to the critical Karakorum Pass — have witnessed a 75% rise in 2019.

The Indian officials say China is objecting to a road it’s building at the Pangong Tso that connects to disputed border. On May 5 and 6, troops clashed on the banks of the lake, leaving scores of soldiers on both sides injured. On May 9, several soldiers were injured when the two armies clashed near a three-way junction between Bhutan, China and India, close to the site of the Doklam standoff.

The Indian Army would not comment on the tensions, with spokesman Aman Anand on Thursday referring Bloomberg to a statement issued on May 12 that acknowledged incidents of aggressive behavior along the border.

”I take the current border situation very seriously,” said Ashok K. Kantha, director of the New Delhi-based Institute of Chinese Studies and a former Indian ambassador to Beijing, adding that he didn’t “see these as isolated incidents but in conjunction China’s aggressive behavior in the South China Sea. There is a larger pattern to border incidents.”

Informal Summits

There had been a significant dip in tensions in 2018 that followed an informal summit between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The meeting between the leaders — held after stand off of more than 70 days between the two armies on the Doklam peninsula in 2017 — was followed up with a second summit in Mamallapuram near the southern Indian city of Chennai in October last year.

At that meeting, Xi and Modi agreed to give “strategic guidance” to their respective armies. That included less aggressive patrols on the border, informing the other side of incoming patrols and more contact between local military commanders to reduce friction.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, India’s Chief of Defense Staff Bipin Rawat said the strategic guidance was working, but noted a hot-line connecting the top leaders of the two armies that was proposed as far back as 2013 would help reduce tensions. “I think the hot-line between the two armies is required,” Rawat said. Even though the two countries are in touch through diplomatic channels, he added “we would like a military level communication as well.”