India (MNN) – A ceasefire between India and Pakistan is fragilely holding, though both countries have reported violations by the opposing side. The most recent conflict between the countries involved a terrorist attack that claimed 26 lives in India’s Kashmir region, answered by India’s retaliatory missile attack on Pakistan, the suspected terror sponsor. The Kashmir region is known for being hotly contested. Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs USA says the dispute goes back to the division of India when Pakistan was created.
“The idea was that Pakistan would have mostly Muslim people. The nation of India that was left would have mostly Hindu people. Kashmir is mostly Muslim people, but India claims the territory as their own,” he says.
Map of Kashmir region, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
India’s Hindu nationalist government has been exerting more control over the region in recent years.
“And I think that has brought fresh attention to some of the scars and the wounds from the decades past,” Nettleton points out.
The recent conflagration escalated quickly.
“By the same token, it also seems to have been settled very quickly, and hopefully this ceasefire will hold,” he says.
Nettleton says this particular border is often the site of international tensions.
“I think it’s sort of dry tinder all the time, and then you have something like the terrorist attack that happened, and it’s very easy for that dry tinder to catch fire.”
The situation affects the body of Christ in Kashmir, who are often caught in the crossfire. What’s more, Nettleton says unrest such as this can serve as cover for religious targeting.
“If there are missiles being dropped and a church building is destroyed, you don’t think the church was targeted for persecution. You think there were missiles falling and a church got hit,” he says.
Kasmir is known as “India’s Switzerland” for its natural beauty. (Photo courtesy of Samed via Unsplash.)
Please pray that this kind of persecution will not happen as a result of ongoing tensions. Pray for Christian brothers and sisters affected by the violence, that they would continue to hold out the Gospel of hope to their warring neighbors.
“They have so many reasons to lay low and not be involved in ministry, and yet so many of them are stepping up and actively being involved in ministry,” Nettleton says.
Pray for peace in the region of Kashmir.
Featured photo courtesy of Divya Agrawal via Unsplash
