India-Pakistan: June 30, 2003

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In northwest Pakistan, border posts on the Afghan border are being moved. During the 1980s, and the war in Afghanistan between Russians and Afghans, many of the border posts were moved up to 500 meters inside Afghanistan for various reasons (better view of the surrounding terrain, more sheltered, etc). Now, all the border posts are inside Pakistan and staffed by more reliable (less subject to bribes by Taliban or al Qaeda) troops

Last June, Pakistan changed the rules for candidates for the national legislature, stipulating that they must be college graduates. This rule is now being enforced, and legislators who were elected, and found to not have the university degree, are being taken to court and removed from parliament. The new rule is particularly hard on religious conservative candidates, many of whom do not have a college degree (and ignored the new rule when they ran for office). Military officers, who currently hold many key government positions, tend to be university grads, and even the ones who favor Islamic conservatism, can be reasoned with more than the Islamic radicals who only studied religion in their youth.

In Kashmir, rebel violence left 11 dead. 

 

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