In the last intallment of a series on the looming disaster in Nepal, Newsday's courageous reporter Matthew McAllester Aug. 17 highlights a little-noted ethnic dimesion to the conflict, which is usually portrayed soley in terms of fanatical Maoist guerillas versus an autocratic monarchy. The story, entitled "Local militias add to Nepal's deadly mix," notes the emergence of paramilitary vigilante groups to fight the guerillas, backed by the army and big land-owners. The Royal Nepalese Army has denied creating the "village counterforces," as the militias call themselves. But militia leaders boasted to McAllester of receiving training and official ID badges from the army, prompting Brig. Gen. Dipak Gurung to admit the army's involvement--and the risk it entails. "Once you train them, you have to take responsibility for them... I hope it doesn't come to a situation where we have to disarm them. You never know."

Recent optimism on reducing tensions between India and Pakistan is tempered by Pakistan's Aug. 10 test-firing of its first ground-launched nuclear-capable Cruise Missile Hatf VII Babur, with a range of 500 kilometers. The military said that with the "successful test, Pakistan has joined a select group of countries which have the capability to design and develop [a] cruise missile."

Arrested for "spreading hatred"? Sounds frighteningly arbitrary and subjective. From UPI, July 20:

Pakistan arrests 200 extremist suspects
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has detained more than 200 suspected Islamic militants in a new security crackdown this week.

Well, the pending US nuclear aid to India is now official, with India hailed as a beacon of "responsible" nuclear development (which we argue is as oxymoronic as "authentic reproduction," "corporate responsibility," "military music," etc.). This despite the fact that India, unlike "irresponsible" Iran, already has nuclear weapons, and so does its arch-rival Pakistan, and the brief 1999 war between the two regional powers almost went nuclear. This report from Bloomberg:

Following the July 5 attack by presumed Islamic militants at the disputed Indian holy site of Ayodhya, protests have broken out throughout India. Over 2,000 were arrested in Delhi, where police used tear gas, and critics charge the protests have been particularly violent in states controlled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

India Express reports that authorities on the Indian side of divided Jammu & Kashmir state are on "red alert" as Hindus prepare for protests following yesterday's attack by presumed Islamic militants on Ayodhya, the disputed holy site in Uttar Pradesh. A July 6 report in India Express also notes that Hindus displaced from the Pakistani side of the line, organized in the Panun Kashmir Movement (PKM), are demanding a seat at the dialogue table over the divided region's future. They call themselves the Kashmiri Pandits (pandit literally meaning a scholar of Sanskrit, underscoring their religious identity), and call their homeland (now occupied by Pakistan) Panun Kashmir.

Six were killed today as unidentified militants attacked the bitterly contested holy site of Ayodhya in India's Uttar Pradesh. First, a likely suicide bomber in a jeep blew up an outer security wall; then a group of five others posing as tourists in a taxi stormed the complex, sparking a gunbattle with police in which all the attackers were killed. The site has occasioned much violence in the past, beginning in December 1992, when the Babri mosque that had stood there since the Mogul era was destroyed in a mass action by Hindu militants, who claimed it was built atop an ancient temple marking the birthplace of the god Rama. The question again exploded into violence in February 2002 when a train carrying Hindu militants from the site, where they had rallied for rebuilding the temple, was attacked by Muslim militants in Gujarat state, leaving 59 dead and sparking weeks of retaliatory violence in which over 1,000 Muslims were killed. Excavations are currently underway to determine if in fact the temple had existed, and a makeshift Hindu shrine has been erected there.

It was wonderful to see photos in the newspapers today of Hindu pilgrims making their way up mountain trails in the disputed Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir for the annual yatra or pilgrimage to Amarnath Cave, where Shiva is honored in the form of a natural ice stalagmite that is regarded as a symbol of the god's phallus. The 2002 yatra had been marred by sectarian violence that left nine pilrgims dead (see WW4 REPORT #46). This year, the only problems have been logistical (heavy snowfall, overbooked flights for those who chose helicopter rather than the traditional 80-mile trek from Srinagar).