April 11,2008:
The war on terror that began after September 11, 2001 has scored
victories that get very little publicity in the United States. For example, in
northeastern India, the state of Kashmir has been a matter of several wars, and
constant violence, between India and Pakistan, over the last sixty years. In
the late 1980s, Pakistan began supporting Islamic terrorists, believing that a
terrorism campaign in Kashmir would drive the Indians, and non-Moslems out. It
didn't. But year by year, the violence got worse, peaking in 2001, when over
3,000 people (most of them terrorists) died in Kashmir (an area with about 7
million population). The U.S. declaring war on Islamic terrorism, and enlisting
Pakistan as an ally, hurt the terrorists in Kashmir, by reducing the support
the Pakistani government provided . At the same time, the Indian counter-terrorism
effort was getting larger, smarter, better equipped and more vigorous. Thus for
the last seven years, terrorist activity, and terrorism related deaths, have
plummeted in Kashmir. Last year, total deaths were under 800. Most of them were
terrorists. In the last year, the
Pakistani government has restored some of the support, for Kashmiri terrorists,
that it had previously withdrawn. This was done to prevent the Kashmiri
terrorists from being completely wiped out. The Kashmir terrorism effort has a
lot of popular support in Pakistan, because many Pakistanis believe Kashmir
should be a Moslem state under Islamic rule. It may be too late, as fewer than
a hundred terrorists are believed active in Kashmir, and the Indian police and
troops are hunting for them.