Opinion | India-Pakistan crisis: don’t be fooled, nuclear war is one step closer – and the stalemate has just begun
- Even if Pakistan acts against terror group Jaish-e Muhammad, Indian rule and brutality in Kashmir mean the causes of this stand-off will fester
Even if the two countries have – for now – resisted escalating hostilities following air strikes on each other’s territories, the situation could scarcely be more serious. That two nuclear power states have engaged in military action against one another marks the first step along a path of escalation that – in a worst-case scenario – could result in the use of nuclear weapons.
On Thursday, after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pledged to release a captured Indian air force pilot, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a domestic audience and projected a willingness to take the conflict further.
In apparent reference to an Indian air force incursion into Pakistani territory on Tuesday, he said: “After a pilot project is completed, it can be made scalable. A pilot project has been implemented. Now a real [project] must be done. The previous one was [just] practice.”