Kashmir Fence May Cement Divide | Los Angeles Times

[Ediacara]

Kashmir Fence May Cement Divide
Although Pakistan fears a permanent partition of the region, India says it's keeping out insurgents. But the dispute remains civil.

By Paul Watson, Times Staff Writer

BAKARPUR, India — Enemies stand so close along this Kashmir frontier that in good times Indian soldiers can shout across the no man's land and invite Pakistani troops over for lunch.

When the mood sours, they have a clear shot at each other.

These days, something more than decades-old hostilities is separating the antagonists: a 500-mile-long, 12-foot-tall, barbed-wire fence. India is building the barrier in an attempt to seal the rugged frontier against infiltration by guerrillas battling to reunite the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir with that ruled by Pakistan to the west. A small part of Kashmir is under Chinese control.

Pakistan fears that India wants to create what diplomats call new "facts on the ground" and cement the 57-year division of mainly Muslim Kashmir. India insists that it has the right to build the barrier in what it considers an integral part of India.

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[Muddleoftheroad]

1. Gee where is the international outcry

Israel tries to build a fence to protect itself from terror and the world is up in arms. India tries to do the same and... silence.

[TahitiNut]

2. So, the Palestinians have nukes and a government?

To infer any kind of equivalence relationship is sheer nonsense.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[mobuto]

5. The terrorists sneaking across the border in Kashmir

do not have nukes nor do they have a government. They're backed by elements of the Pakistani government, but then the Palestinian terrorists are backed by a multitude of Arab goverments.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Maybe because ...

"The fence snakes across the divided territory, hugging the Line of Control — a 1972 cease-fire line that divides the territory — and zigzagging through barren mountains as high as 12,000 feet"

instead of going through farmers' orchards and fields, destroying some land and cutting off more. If the Israeli barrier followed the Green Line, it would have international acceptance.