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The year in review: South Asia
From Ram Ramgopal
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- From the threat of nuclear war to landmark elections, it's been a tumultuous year for South Asia. The feud between South Asian rivals India and Pakistan has hogged the headlines throughout the year, and has influenced other events in the neighborhood. The year dawned ominously in the Indian subcontinent, as New Delhi began its largest-yet mobilization of troops, massing them on the border with Pakistan. The provocation: an attack by terrorists on the Indian Parliament, in the closing days of 2001. India blamed Pakistan-based groups for carrying out the attack. Pakistan responded with a deployment of its own. War never looked more likely than in mid-June, soon after another terrorist attack against family members of army personnel in Indian Kashmir which killed 34. Alarmed by the prospect of conflict between two nuclear rivals, western governments advised their citizens to leave India and Pakistan. General Pervez Musharraf took a stern message to the UN General Assembly. "Let me declare Pakistan will not start a war with India but let me also declare that if war is thrust upon us we will exercise our right to self-defense fully and very effectively," he warned. The standoff lasted 10 months and was only defused through intense international mediation. KashmirBut the greatest source of tension persists: Kashmir. In September and October, the Indian part of Kashmir went to the polls to choose a new state administration. It was a blood-soaked election campaign, during which about 500 people were killed. Yet, voters defied terrorist threats and boycott calls by moderate separatists to take part. The incumbent government was voted out and the new administration is now attempting to open talks with the separatists and Pakistani officials on the future of Kashmir. Former Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral supports that view, saying the government in New Delhi should respond.
"If I were in power I would talk to everybody except those who hold a gun to my head. Those who discard the gun and attach importance and sanctity -- I'm using the word "sanctity" particularly -- sanctity to the talking table: welcome," says Gujral. Pakistan electionsIt was election time in Pakistan as well. General Pervez Musharraf won a referendum that allows him to remain president of the country for five more years. There was also a general election to elect a new government to serve under Musharraf. While seeking democratic legitimacy, General Musharraf was also preoccupied with Islamic extremism. In February, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted and brutally murdered by a group loosely associated with al Qaeda. Then in May, 11 French naval engineers were killed in a bomb blast in Karachi; a month later, 14 Pakistanis were killed by a car bomb outside the U.S. Consulate. In Nepal, the insurgents are Maoists -- extreme leftists -- who have launched a campaign to overthrow the country's monarchy. Hundreds of government troops and as many Maoists were killed this year.
In India, religious violence in the state of Gujarat claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 people -- most of them Muslims. Civil warIf there was one silver lining in the dark South Asian clouds, it was from Sri Lanka. After nearly two decades of civil war, the Tamil Tiger rebels appeared to drop their demand for independence. After talks mediated by Norway, the Tigers agreed to discuss the concept of a homeland within a united Sri Lanka. Hopes perhaps for a brighter future in Sri Lanka. But as at the end of last year, India and Pakistan remain locked in animosity ... a sobering prospect for the international community.
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