海角大神

A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Dual attacks on security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir near Pakistan鈥檚 border killed at least eight people Thursday, just days before the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers are set to meet.聽

The attack underscores the difficulty of bringing the two powers, long seen as enemies, together for peace talks.

The Associated Press reports that no one has claimed responsibility for today鈥檚 attacks.

Peace talks between the two nuclear-armed countries have been stalled for the past two years, but a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this weekend, where they are expected to discuss the heightened violence in Kashmir, is a much anticipated step toward launching talks.

Kashmir is a disputed Himalayan territory divided between the two nations by the so-called Line of Control (LoC). Both countries claim Kashmir in its entirety, and it has witnessed militant violence since the 1990s. There has been a cease-fire in effect for a decade but intermittent violence has continued, including a rise in attacks this year.

"Given the history, timing, and location, the aim [of the attacks] is to derail the proposed meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart," said Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, according to the BBC. "There are forces that are inimical to peace and want to derail any peace process."

Indian politicians have called for the meeting between Mr. Sharif and Mr. Singh on Sunday to be cancelled, reports Reuters. India often accuses Islamabad of arming and training Kashmir militant groups, something Pakistan denies.

Raza Rumi of the Pakistani think tank The Jinnah Institute told 海角大神 in January that, "This has been the historical trend: that whenever India and Pakistan move toward peace, one small incident reverses all progress made by the dialogue process."

But Singh said in a statement that the attacks 鈥渨ill not deter us and will not succeed in derailing our efforts to find a resolution to all problems through a process of dialogue."

The Monitor reports that the number of militants in Kashmir for the past few years has been less than 500, according to both police and the Indian Army. However, the armed forces in the region have not declined dramatically. India has more than half a million soldiers in Kashmir and an estimated 100,000 local police officers 鈥渢o deal with [the] popular rebellion that cropped up in 1990 against Indian rule.鈥�

Reuters reports that 128 people have been killed in Kashmir this year, not including today鈥檚 attacks. That鈥檚 compared with 117 people killed in 2012, according to data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal, an organization that tracks violence in Kashmir.