Kashmir—Caught in the Crossfire as India and Pakistan Edge Toward Catastrophe

As the specter of full-scale war looms, it is the ordinary people of Kashmir who will pay the highest price

Kashmir, PUREWILAYAH.COM - Once again, the world watches as India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed neighbours, teeter on the brink of all-out war. The latest escalation—marked by India’s most extensive missile strikes yet into Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir—has left at least 26 dead and many more wounded, with harrowing images of chaos and suffering flooding social media. In Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, terrified residents fled to the hills as missiles rained down, a grim reminder that for the people of Kashmir, war is never far away.

India’s “Operation Sindoor” targeted what it called “terrorist infrastructure,” specifically Lashkar-e-Taiba bases, in response to a recent massacre of Indian tourists in Pahalgam. Pakistan, for its part, reported 24 missiles striking six locations, and the cross-border shelling that followed has already claimed more civilian lives. The cycle of violence, blame, and retaliation is depressingly familiar.

The roots of this hostility run deep, stretching back to the 1947 partition of British India—a wound that has never healed. Decades of wars, proxy battles, and diplomatic breakdowns have only deepened the mistrust. Yet, despite the political posturing and military bravado, it is the ordinary people—especially the war-weary Kashmiris—who suffer most. They have endured decades of violence, their lives and livelihoods shattered by a conflict not of their making.

There have been moments of hope. Leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pervez Musharraf once dared to imagine peace, proposing bold solutions and extending hands across the divide. But each time, tragedy intervened: the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the 2016 Uri attack, the 2019 Pulwama bombing. Each incident hardened hearts and closed doors, especially under the increasingly militarized policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose revocation of Kashmir’s special status in 2019 only deepened the region’s sense of siege.

The recent attack on tourists in Pahalgam shattered any illusion of normalcy. The violence was condemned most vocally by Kashmiris themselves, who filled the streets in protest and observed moments of silence for the victims. Yet, in the aftermath, Kashmiri students across India faced harassment and scapegoating, as if collective punishment could ever bring justice or peace.

Now, as missiles fly and the threat of nuclear war becomes chillingly real, the world must remember who stands to lose the most. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has warned that a nuclear exchange would be catastrophic, with millions of lives at risk and consequences that would reverberate far beyond South Asia.

It is time to listen to the voices of ordinary people on both sides of the border—people who share language, culture, and history, and who overwhelmingly reject war. The true victims of this conflict are not the politicians or generals, but the families in Kashmir who live in constant fear, the children who have never known peace, and the communities whose futures are held hostage by forces beyond their control.

If there is any lesson to be drawn from this latest crisis, it is that the world cannot afford to look away. The people of Kashmir deserve more than to be pawns in a deadly game of brinkmanship. They deserve peace, dignity, and the chance to shape their own destiny—free from the shadow of war. (PW)

Reference: PressTv

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