South Asia has witnessed an upsurge of violence since the military takeover in Pakistan and the hijacking of an Indian airliner last year. There may or may not be any causal link between the two incidents, but the peace process in the region has been the biggest casualty of both.
Clashes and brutalities in the Kashmir Valley and along the India-Pakistan frontiers are now a routine affair. The regular annual summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation remains postponed indefinitely at India's behest.
This makes the regional communication process totally dysfunctional. With diplomats having faced mutual expulsions from New Delhi and Islamabad, the official level of bilateral diplomacy appears stalled. Nonofficial peace initiatives, the "track II approach," remain muted. The people-to-people-level contacts symbolized by the much-heralded "bus diplomacy" has come under direct attack by the Shiv Sena, the religious zealots backing the Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government in New Delhi.
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