The so-called disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir could spark a Nuclear War between India and Pakistan according to a leading US think-tank. The report — by Stratfor also contradicts the classification of the Kashmir issue as India’s “internal affair” or a “bilateral” issue between India and Pakistan.
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“It isn’t. A potential nuclear conflagration cannot be anything other than a matter of international peace and security,” the report warns.
According to the report, the possibility of “the conflict going nuclear may have increased on Aug 16”, when Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hinted at abandoning India’s “no first use” policy.
Rajnath Singh tweeted that “India has strictly adhered to this doctrine. What happens in the future depends on the circumstances”. And “the circumstances are not hopeful”, the report adds.
The report points out that during a recent visit to Jammu and Kashmir, correspondents for The New York Times met a herdsman in Srinagar. As a car carrying a reporter slowed down to approach him, the herdsman said to the journalist – “We are ready to pick up guns.”
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The report argues that with passions again running high in Kashmir, the stakes for the region and the world could not be higher. “Decades ago, the people of Kashmir were promised a plebiscite that never took place. Will, they ever be asked what the (Kashmiri People) want?” the report asks.
It claims that both Indian and Pakistani armed forces possess both strategic and tactical nuclear weapons, which local commanders could use on the battlefield in populated areas. “This would be the first use in war of atomic weapons since the US destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945,” the report adds.
It also notes that while previous Pakistani governments had supported Kashmiri insurgents, the present Pakistani government, which came to power in August 2018, was “not involved in his predecessors’ interference in Jammu and Kashmir”.
