| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
India-Pakistan relations have been on a roller coaster. They reached a new low after
the Mumbai terror attacks of November 26, 2008. Tensions increased to such an
extent that the possibility of a war was openly talked about on both sides. However,
only a couple of hours before the attacks, the foreign ministers of the two countries
had appeared upbeat about the state of the peace process and the composite dialogue
which had started in January 2004.
The post-Mumbai situation brings to mind the Kargil episode of May 1999. A few
months before units of Pakistan's Northern Light Infanty were discovered in the icy
heights of Kargil, India and Pakistan were enjoying the honeymoon that had begun
with Prime Minister Vajpayee's visit to Lahore. Vajpayee's visit to Lahore, also
known as the Lahore Bus Yatra, was an attempt by the two sides to normalize the
bilateral relationship after the May 1998 nuclear weapons tests. Even as the Prime
Ministers of India and Pakistan were signing documents to normalize the relationship,
the Pakistan Army was planning intrusions into Indian territory. After the Pakistan
Army was forced to withdraw from the Kargil heights by Indian military operations
and international condemnation and pressure, the elected civilian government was
overthrown by the then Army Chief, General Parvez Musharraf, who ruled the
country for the next nine years.
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