Toward a Kashmir Endgame? How India and Pakistan Could Negotiate a Lasting Solution Kashmir has once again emerged as a major flashpoint between South Asia’s nuclear-armed rivals, India and Pakistan. The Indian government’s August 2019 withdrawal of statehood status for the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir region intensified disaffection among separatists and the Kashmiri public. This report explores the strategies India and Pakistan have adopted toward Kashmir in the year since August 2019, and examines a potential road map for resolving the Kashmir conflict. Motorcyclists navigate past barbed-wire placed by Indian security forces in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar on August 10, 2019. (Atul Loke/New York Times) Summary Kashmir has been a cauldron of discontent since August 2019, when the Indian government altered the special constitutional status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and split it into two “union territories” under direct federal administration.  For now, the Indian gov...

The Current Situation in Pakistan Pakistan continues to face multiple sources of internal and external conflict. While incidences of domestic terrorism have reduced, in part due to measures taken by the Pakistani state, extremism and intolerance of diversity has grown. There is some recognition by the state that instead of merely kinetic responses holistic counterterrorism policies are needed to counteract this trend. The growing extremism has been fueled by a narrow vision of Pakistan’s national identity, threatening the country’s prospect for social cohesion and stability. The inability of state institutions to reliably provide peaceful ways to resolve grievances has encouraged groups to seek violence as a legitimate alternative. While peaceful political transitions occurred in both 2013 and 2018, the country is still facing mounting debt crisis and a perennial trade imbalance on the economic front.Furthermore, Pakistan’s high-profile disputes with neighboring India and Afghanistan h...

For more information  like my facebook page  Abdul_Majeed 13 Things You Should Know About Pakistani Culture If there is a country whose culture is starkly contrasted by its international image, it has to be Pakistan. Pakistanis all over the world often face the dilemma of explaining what their culture really entails, thanks to years of news-media exaggeration and agenda setting. Beyond democratic and economic disappointment dwells a world of Pakistani civil society that works resiliently against all odds to keep what matters most intact: the country’s vibrant culture. Let’s try to get to know Pakistan a little better. Pakistani culture is very diverse Thanks to its historical, geographical and ethnic diversity, Pakistan’s culture is a melting pot of Indian, Persian, Afghan, Central Asian, South Asian and Western Asian influences. There are over 15 major ethnic groups in Pakistan, which differ in physical features, historical bloodl...