Kashmir’s Killing Season

It’s the killing season in Kashmir. Spring thaws the snows and ice high in the Himalayas, allowing terrorists to slip into India from Pakistan and kill villagers. The two nations then threaten war, and it’s usually the United States and Britain that step in to separate them. This year London and Washington are busy elsewhere, but they should take care not to let Iraq blind them to the world’s other areas of crisis.

Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir, which was divided when the two nations were created in 1947 with independence from Britain. Kashmir is the only predominantly Muslim state in India, most of whose people are Hindus. For the last 14 years, Islamic militants have been fighting for Kashmir’s independence or annexation to Pakistan. The death toll is estimated at more than 60,000, most of them Kashmiri civilians.

Two weeks ago, assailants shot to death 24 upper-caste Hindus in the village of Nadimarg, about 30 miles south of Srinagar, Kashmir’s summer capital. Two children and 11 women were among the victims. The Indian government blamed the attack on Islamic militants backed by Pakistan, which denied the charge. However, the killings were similar enough to past murders carried out by men infiltrating from Pakistan that most observers concluded that India was correct in assigning blame.

The Nadimarg killings came not long after the Indian government’s envoy to Kashmir said he might hold talks with pro-Pakistan separatist groups in the state. That was a significant easing of New Delhi’s usual refusal to talk with any groups it contends support terrorism. The peace feeler followed October’s election of new leaders in Kashmir.

After the killings, the Indian government reversed course and accused the state leaders of being “soft on terrorism.” That was a bad move, and India should correct it by beginning talks with nonviolent separatists, underlining the contrast with Islamic militants who kill Kashmiri leaders they believe hostile to their cause.

Last year, India and Pakistan mobilized a million soldiers on their border and were not far from war. Two days after the Nadimarg killings, each of the nuclear-armed nations conducted missile tests, increasing tension.

The United States and Britain issued a joint statement urging both armies to stop shooting at each other across the de facto border in the disputed territory and to negotiate. But more than the occasional statement is required.

London and, especially, Washington must keep bearing down on both countries, which have fought three wars since independence. Pakistan needs continual pressure to live up to its pledge to stop guerrillas from crossing into India. India needs reminding that war against a nuclear neighbor is not a formula for victory -- that the dispute over Kashmir requires a political solution.