JAMMU AND KASHMIR : Blood on the Border?

Security forces on both sides of the disputed Indo-Pakistani border region of Jammu and Kashmir have been placed on full alert for today’s scheduled suicide charge by Muslim militants, whose armed struggle to create a separate state in the Himalayan region already has left nearly 2,000 dead in two years.

Facing the second such border assault in a month, the government of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, which staunchly supports the Kashmiri rebellion, has been silent on whether it again will use force to stop a protest. Last month, Pakistani police were forced to open fire on the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front marchers, killing 16, after the rebels, led by front chairman Amanullah Khan, managed to claw through miles of rubble from barricade avalanches that the Pakistanis had set off with explosives the day of the march.