Kashmir dispute fueling threat of nuclear war b/w Pak, India: US Think Tank

A US think-tank has warned that the specter of nuclear war haunts tensions between India and Pakistan, and the disputed territory of Kashmir could provide the spark that lights South Asia’s nuclear fuse.

The report by Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence platform based in Austin, Texas, said, in case of a Pak-India clash,  “it would be the sight of nuclear war taking millions of lives. Although the stakes in Kashmir could not be higher, the United States and much of the international community call the dispute India’s “internal affair” or a “bilateral” issue between India and Pakistan. It isn’t. A potential nuclear conflagration cannot be anything other than a matter of international peace and security.”

According to the report, the possibility of the conflict going nuclear has increased after Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement of abandoning India’s “no first use” doctrine.

It points out that last February, Pakistan downed an Indian fighter jet but returned its pilot. However, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not acknowledge Islamabad’s conciliatory gesture nor his government has been willing to discuss the Kashmir issue, whose people were promised a plebiscite on their future.