Rising issues with India and Pakistan

         

Last week, hostilities between India and its neighbor Pakistan erupted, sharply deteriorated and threatened to escalate into an all-out war until cooler heads prevailed.

While it lasted, the confrontation led to casualties on both sides and was a major threat to world peace. Soldiers on both sides were either killed or injured and a lot of military hardware was also destroyed in the face-off.

Given the history of four wars and sporadic flare-ups between these two nuclear powered and heavily armed countries, as well as the near-permanent acrimony between them over the disputed territory of Kashmir, this recent conflict set the world on edge with fears that it could degenerate into all-out war. The two countries have fought wars in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999. This is not counting the series of border flare-ups which regularly occur on the disputed Kashmir border.