ISLAMABAD -- India and Pakistan, the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors, have slapped each other with punitive sanctions, further increasing frictions driven by a worrisome military buildup. Pakistan has responded in kind to India's decision to ban all Pakistani overflights from New Year's Day, reduce Islamabad's embassy staff in Delhi by half and confine Pakistani diplomats to the limits of the Indian capital.
The consequences of these measures may take days to sink in. Families divided by the border must now kiss goodbye even to occasional visits to and fro, as bus and train services come to a halt.
In the heat of the moment, many people seem compelled to argue that the sanctions may release some of the steam of the recent anger, thus acting as a substitute for a military confrontation -- the logic being that the two countries have already retaliated against each other.