Why has the Kashmir crisis lasted so long?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2019
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In February a bomb blast killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police officers in Kashmir; the worst attack by Pakistani militants in years. Indian military jets were deployed and one was shot down. As concerns over the pilot’s fate grew, fears mounted that India and Pakistan might go to war over Kashmir – again. The countries have been at war four times since partition in 1947. And Kashmir, which both countries claim in entirety but each one controls only in part, has been a key factor in the conflicts. But even when there is no war, there is no stable peace in Kashmir. Violent protests and street fighting are commonplace and daily life is made hard in numerous other ways. Unemployment is high, communication blackouts frequent and security fears constant. The Inquiry explores why the crisis has been so difficult to solve and what it might take for a resolution to emerge.
Presenter: Ruth Alexander Producer: Rosamund Jones
Picture: Displaced Kashmiris take shelter in a government school Credit: Getty Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me Ruth Alexander. |
| 0:04.8 | Each week one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:09.8 | The villagers watched the plane fall from the sky, hit by a missile. |
| 0:19.0 | A tiny figure floated down with a parachute. As he touched the ground, the pilot addressed |
| 0:27.2 | the people standing around him. Have I landed in India? he asked. Long live Pakistan, came the reply. Bad news for an Indian fighter pilot. |
| 0:40.5 | He started to run, but was soon captured. |
| 0:43.0 | His bloodied and blindfolded face paraded on camera by Pakistan's Ministry of Information |
| 0:49.0 | to the Indian government's disgust. |
| 0:52.0 | He'd become the focus of the two countries' life. governments discussed. |
| 0:53.0 | He'd become the focus of the two countries' latest conflict over Kashmir, a region in the Himalayas |
| 0:58.6 | contested by India and Pakistan, and at the heart of a bitter long-running dispute. |
| 1:05.0 | The pilot had been on a mission to attack what India believes on militant training |
| 1:09.1 | camps in the part of Kashmir administered by Pakistan. It was retaliation for a suicide bomb |
| 1:18.7 | attack two weeks earlier which had killed 40 Indian soldiers. |
| 1:24.0 | India and Pakistan have been fighting over the Kashmir region for more than 70 years, |
| 1:30.0 | the latest tensions bringing the two nuclear powers to the brink of war. |
| 1:38.4 | So in this inquiry we want to know. |
| 1:41.2 | Why has the Kashmir crisis lasted so long? Part one, anything can happen. |
| 1:47.0 | Everyone in Kashmir, we thought that a war might come. |
| 1:55.0 | We started storing food, we started storing fuel. |
| 1:58.0 | Our first expert witness is RFAT, a 24-year-old Muslim who lives in Shrinagar, the biggest |
| 2:06.6 | city in the Indian state of Janu and Kashmir. |
... |
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