Two milestone dates to end the year

Dec. 13's suicide attack by Pakistan-backed terrorists on India's Parliament could eclipse the events of Sept. 11 as 2001's fulcrum moment. Ridding Afghanistan of terrorism requires clean-up next door, and as the hunt for Osama bin Laden centers on Afghanistan and Pakistan, American interests will intersect the historical context of the India-Pakistan conflict, continually festered in Kashmir.

Louis Mountbatten, Britain's last viceroy, and Muhammad Jinnah, the father of Pakistan, championed the choice of local rulers to join India or Pakistan. On the independence of both in August 1947, the ruler of Kashmir, Hari Singh, wanted to remain independent. The popular leader of Kashmir's people and main party, Sheikh Abdullah, wanted to join India through a vote of Kashmiris. Weeks passed, and Singh vacillated. In October, Pakistan invaded Kashmir. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's prime minister, refused to intervene unless Singh acceded the province to India, which he did so. In the ensuing war, India came to control about two-thirds of the region. Nehru approached the U.N. Security Council, which in Resolution 47, decided on a ceasefire--withdrawing Pakistani troops from Kashmir--leaving India with security responsibility and, after total Pakistani withdrawal, a plebiscite for Kashmiris to decide which country to join.

Pakistan never withdrew its troops, and 54 years later, this conflict drags on. In 1951, the people in Indian-held Kashmir held free and fair elections to form a Constituent Assembly, which voted to join India. To Indian eyes, this was the plebiscite. This was affirmed in subsequent state elections, including most recently in 1977 (when Sheikh Abdullah was elected and reaffirmed Kashmir as part of India) and 1982. Meanwhile, in Pakistan-held Kashmir, there have never been elections; its "prime minister" is generally appointed by Pakistan's military, the rulers of Pakistan for most its history (while India has remained a secular democracy).

The Kashmir conflict has festered in a cat's cradle of violence and bungling. After two invasions of Kashmir by China and Pakistan in the 1960s, Pakistan gifted parts of Kashmir to China, of course without asking Kashmiris. In 1987, elections in Indian Kashmir were rigged, sparking a struggle for autonomy, which was met by ineptitude and military suppression. Indigenous independence groups have been largely supplanted by imported terrorists tied to Pakistani Islamic fundamentalists. Over 12 years, all sides have suffered, and somewhere between 10,000 to 60,000 civilians have died.

In 1999, a year after the nuclear weapons tests and three months after the Lahore peace process initiated by India, Gen. Pervez Musharraf Pakistan led a Pakistani invasion into Indian-held Kashmir. Upon pressure from Indian troops and President Bill Clinton, they were forced out in July. In October, Musharraf overthrew Pakistan's government. In December, an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked by Pakistani-based terrorists to Kandahar. The plane was released only when India released prisoners who have since ratcheted up terrorism in Kashmir and the rest of India. After India hosted Musharraf at a peace summit this past year, these terrorists bombed Kashmir's assembly and India's parliament. Given India's parliamentary form of government, the last is tantamount to a strike on both the White House and Congress, an attempt to assassinate the leadership of the country. Musharraf's attempts to blame India for the parliament attack and the Pearl kidnapping unmask him as a tailor of "principles" weaving a cloth of subterfuge and deceit.

In sum, Pakistan invaded Kashmir three times, and failing each time, sought peace with one hand while hatching terrorism with the other. Whatever the merits of Kashmir, a political solution is impossible until the nefarious nexus of the al-Qaeda and exported terrorism is smashed. India's restraint after the recent Kashmir invasion, the hijacking and attacks on democracy mirrors U.S. restraint over two decades of terrorism, with similar rewards. That Dec. 13 was not as successful as Sept. 11 in no way minimizes the gravity of the threat.

Just as the root of Sept. 11 is not U.S. policy on Israel or Iraq, but Islamic fundamentalists' aspirations of global domination, the India-Pakistan conflict is not about Kashmir, but rather about competing visions, one of secular plurality, the other of militaristic fundamentalism. Pakistan's military-mullah complex godfathered both the Taliban and terrorists. The cosmetic arrest of some terrorists parallels the apparent possession of bin Laden by the Taliban in September; America's message to hand over terrorists or hand over power should continue loud and clear. The Bush Doctrine should apply for India, as well as the United States: Those who harbor, arm and export terrorists are terrorists and should be eliminated. Expediency should not override principle, for terrorism anywhere threatens freedom everywhere, a lesson borne of the bitter tears of Sept. 11.

Dr. Bala Ambati is a fellow in corneal and LASIK surgery at the Eye Center.