Kashmir: Cozy partnership snaps off
It hasn’t been too long since United Nations cautioned India against the violation of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir, stating India and Pakistan together were engaged in quashing the human rights of the people of the valley. UN had expressed inclination to probe these cases. Though India had refuted the charges against itself, the fact that India was cautioned by UN is a blot on the country’s image. This is the result of having tried to tame the tiger of a PDP and BJP coalition in Jammu and Kashmir.PDP has always assumed soft stance towards the separatists. That party declared Afzal Guru as a martyr, and have always been open about their preferences towards separatists. BJP entering into a coalition with this party itself was a bad precedence. This meant that BJP joined hands with separatists, by taking their side. More than anything else, RSS and Sangh Parivar began to interfere with people’s impressions about the valley and its politics. They began to scratch old wounds and blood began to ooze out.
Rightists spoke of ghettoization of Kashmiri Pandits, and banning cow slaughter and such emotionally manipulative things. This contributed greatly towards increasing the magnitude of fears and hurt Kashmir was already experiencing. More than anything else, citizens of Kashmir who came out to protest were deemed as extremists. The government tried to build a negative public opinion against everything that was happening here. The deployment of pellet guns against protesting civilians became a topic of discussion at international level. Killing of Burhan Wani, didn’t go down too well and sent tempers flaring in Kashmir. It was the first time that the massive support began to pour out in support of an extremist. Extremists used the fact that a civilian being tied as human shield to police jeep, much to their advantage and to build a public opinion against the ruling dispensation. The government failed to identify the difference between disobedient civilians and extremists.
BJP never tried to get to the pulse of Kashmir, instead the party tried to generalize the whole problem by making statements such as the stone-pelting civilians were doing so since they were paid for it by detractors. More than this, the party also tried defending demonetization saying the step had brought down stone-pelting incidents in Kashmir. This had an impact on local businesses too. People, mainly the youth lost jobs. Extremists and trouble makers began drawing the jobless youth towards them. But by the time the central government realized what fiasco it had created, things had gone so beyond control that the United Nations took cognizance of the matter and even addressed it in a meeting. By this time, BJP and PDP had realized they had to restrategise their coalition.
PDP didn’t want to speak against separatists, let along acting against them. The party couldn’t take a stance against police and army meting out assaults against civilians in the area. The Kathua incident laid bare the discontentment PDP nursed against BJP. The rape of a 9 year old child by members of Hindu organisations, to ‘teach a lesson to her community’ earned international shame for the nation and held mirror to inhumanity in Kashmir. In the meantime, Sangh Parivar members took out a rally in support of the culprits when they were arrested. PDP insisted that two of the BJP MLAs who were also ministers who supported this rally must be thrown out of the government. This caused great embarrassment to BJP. After this, PDP made no bones about its differences of opinion with its ally. BJP also felt peace won’t return to the valley with its force exerting tactics. This ceasefire was also one of strategies government adopted to bring some peace into the area.
Though BJP has differences of opinion on this matter, its attempt to engage with the extremists may send wrong signals. BJP fears the opposition backlash if it decides to hold talks with the separatists. Hence having known neither force, nor talks can ensure peace in Kashmir, BJP decided to withdraw the support unable to ride the tiger of coalition. This is also to ensure BJP goes to Lok Sabha polls cleaner than before. Now both partners have parted ways with Kathua case as the pretext. The divorce is through. But a bad precedence has been set about Kashmir at international level. United Nations has already trained its eyes on Kashmir over human rights violation. Unless people wholeheartedly accept India as home, it is impossible to ensure Kashmir’s unflinching integrity towards India. The political parties need to understand this simple truth.
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US strikes on Yemeni oil port kill 74 people, Houthis say, in deadliest attack of Trump campaign
Dubai, Apr 18 (AP): US airstrikes targetting an oil port held by Yemen's Houthi rebels killed 74 people and wounded 171 others, the group said Friday, in the deadliest known attack under President Donald Trump's new military campaign against the Iranian-backed faction.
The strike on the Ras Isa port, which sent massive fireballs shooting into the night sky, represented a major escalation in the American effort by hitting oil facilities for the first time.
Assessing the toll of Trump's campaign, which began March 15, has been difficult, as the US military's Central Command hasn't released any information, including its attacks' targets and how many people have been killed.
The Houthis, meanwhile, strictly control access to attacked areas and don't publish complete information on the strikes, many of which likely have targetted military and security sites.
In a statement, Central Command said “US forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi group and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorise the entire region for over 10 years.”
“This strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen, who rightly want to throw off the yoke of Houthi subjugation and live peacefully,” it added. It did not acknowledge any casualties from the attack or offer any damage assessment.
Hours after the strike, the Houthis launched a missile toward Israel that was intercepted, the Israeli military said. Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and elsewhere.
Yemen's civil war, meanwhile, further internationalised, as the US alleged a Chinese satellite company was “directly supporting” Houthi attacks — a claim Beijing declined to directly comment on.
And a second round of negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear programme, which America has linked to the Yemen campaign, is due to happen Saturday in Rome.
US strikes spark massive fireball
The Ras Isa port, a collection of oil tanks and refining equipment, sits in Yemen's Hodeida governorate along the Red Sea. It is just off Kamaran Island, which has been targeted by intense US airstrikes over the past few days.
The Houthis' al-Masirah satellite news channel aired graphic footage of the aftermath, showing corpses strewn across the site and smashed tanker trucks ablaze.
Satellite images of the port from Planet Labs PBC and analysed by The Associated Press showed destroyed oil tanks and vehicles.
Oil also appeared to be leaking into the Red Sea. Wim Zwijnenburg, an analyst with Dutch peace organisation PAX, said it appeared that at least three fuel storage tanks had been destroyed and that oil had leaked from mooring pipelines.
The port also is the terminus of an oil pipeline stretching to Yemen's energy-rich Marib governorate, which is held by allies of Yemen's exiled government.
The Houthis expelled that government from Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in 2014. However, oil exports have been halted by the decadelong war and the Houthis have used Ras Isa to bring in oil.
Ras Isa takes in gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas for the Houthis. The damage from the airstrikes could seriously affect life in Houthi-held areas of Yemen.
The Houthis denounced the US attack as a “completely unjustified aggression.”
“It targets a vital civilian facility that has served the Yemeni people for decades," the Houthis said in a statement.
On April 9, the US State Department issued a warning about oil shipments to Yemen, saying it would “not tolerate any country or commercial entity providing support to foreign fighter organisations, such as the Houthis.”
The attack follows Israeli airstrikes on the Houthis that hit port and oil infrastructure used by the rebels after their attacks on Israel, including Ras Isa.
The deadliest known attack in Trump's Yemen campaign
The airstrike on the port is the deadliest known attack yet in Trump's campaign against the Houthis. The actual cost in lives is hard to assess, said Luca Nevola, the senior analyst for Yemen and the Gulf at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a think tank.
“Since they are targeting civilian areas, there's a lot more victims. But it's also difficult to assess how many because the Houthis are releasing these umbrella statements that cover all the victims... or tend to stress only the civilian victims,” Nevola said.
Further complicating the situation is the US strikes hitting military targets, said Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen expert at the Basha Report risk advisory firm. He pointed to an American attack that Trump highlighted online with black-and-white strike footage, which might have killed about 70 fighters.
“Although the Houthis claimed it was a tribal gathering, they neither released any footage nor named a single casualty, strongly suggesting the victims were not civilians but affiliated fighters,” al-Basha said. “However, the overnight strike on the Ras Isa Fuel Port marks the first mass-casualty incident the Houthis have openly acknowledged and publicised.”
The US accuses a Chinese satellite company of aiding Houthi attacks
Meanwhile, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce in a briefing with journalists accused Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co Ltd, a commercial satellite image provider, of “directly supporting Iran-backed Houthi group attacks on US interests.”
Bruce did not elaborate in detail, but acknowledged a report by The Financial Times that quoted anonymous American officials saying the firm linked to the People's Liberation Army has provided images allowing the rebels to target US warships and commercial vessels travelling through the Red Sea corridor.
Bruce said “Beijing's support ... of the satellite company” “contradicts their claims of being peace supporters.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, responding to a question about the allegation, said Friday: “I am not familiar with the situation you mentioned.”
However, he insisted China is seen as urging countries “to make more efforts conducive to regional peace and stability.”
“Since the escalations in the Red Sea situation, China has been playing a positive role in de-escalating the situation,” Lin said. “Who is promoting talks for peace and de-escalating the tensions, and who is imposing sanctions and pressure?”
Chang Guang did not respond to request for comment.
The US Treasury sanctioned the company in 2023 for allegedly providing satellite images to the Russian mercenary force the Wagner Group as it fought in Ukraine.
It remains unclear whether Chang Guang is linked to the Chinese government.
The US government in the past has used images taken by American commercial satellite companies to share with allies, like Ukraine, to avoid releasing its own top-secret pictures.
US strikes are part of monthlong intense campaign
An AP review has found the new US operation against the Houthis under President Donald Trump appears more extensive than that under former President Joe Biden. The new campaign of airstrikes started after the rebels threatened to begin targetting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis targetted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year.
That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees USD 1 trillion of goods move through it. The Houthis also launched attacks targeting American warships without success.
