INDIA and Pakistan are yet again lurching toward a dangerous confrontation in Kashmir with claim and counterclaim about cross-border raids and the disturbing allegation from New Delhi that one of its two soldiers killed this week had been beheaded and the other mutilated. Parts of the mountainous snowbound Line of Control (LoC) that divides Indian and Pakistani forces in disputed Kashmir provide the most challenging military postings in the world. Mounting guard in icy winds and sub zero temperatures, that can almost immediately freeze human skin to exposed metal, is a tough duty. Senior officers may be back in heated command posts but for the soldiers facing each other in the very frontline, life is a tedious succession of watches and stand downs in a constant struggle to stay warm, brew chai and keep up their spirits. It matters not that the dangerous 60-year confrontation, which has spawned three wars between India and Pakistan, is taking place in some of the most stunning scenery on earth. In the end, a Kashmir posting for soldiers of either army is known to be a really tough one. It has been known that troops in isolated posts along the LoC have exchanged messages and even, on occasions, mutual help when the weather rather than the opposing soldiers proved the greater enemy. However, it is equally true that ambitious young commanders, anxious to keep up the morale of their troops, have engendered an offensive spirit in them. Thus a lone soldier might be tempted to break the uneasy peace by taking a pot shot at the enemy, and return fire has often initiated a firefight. If there are no casualties, trench life returns to normality. If, however, as has happened in recent days lives are lost allegedly as a result of raids into territory held by the enemy, then very quickly both governments and the media become involved and the situation has the clear propensity to spin out of control. For all the sound and fury among the press and politicians in each country, it is time for wiser heads to prevail. India and Pakistan simply have to get on with negotiating a settlement to their rival claims to Kashmir. These talks resumed fitfully 11 months ago having been suspended following the 2008 Mumbai attacks. There is however little evidence that they have progressed, with the Indians, for instance, refusing to submit to international arbitration, while Pakistan continues to demand that the people of Kashmir should be allowed to decide their own future. New Delhi and Islamabad should be approaching these talks from a totally different direction. Instead of getting bogged down in territorial claims, they should be looking at what each country is losing economically and politically by this continued, nuclear-armed standoff. India is a burgeoning economic power. By working with its neighbor, Pakistan could share in the rising prosperity and create the jobs and opportunities, whose lack is further undermining its already fragile political stability. India would also benefit from easy access to a market approaching 180 million Pakistanis. Cross-border trade and cooperation would make both countries infinitely richer, not just financially but socially. The power to bring this about rests with each government. However, the power to plunge the two countries once again into war lies with a single bullet fired by a bored and overenthusiastic soldier high up in the LoC.
