IT HAS been a dispiriting decade for those who dream of Pakistan taking full control of Kashmir, the Himalayan former kingdom that India claims for itself. Pakistan-based activists have long feared Islamabad’s heart is no longer in their cause. Some feel the big political parties are more interested in accepting the status quo of a divided Kashmir and focusing on trade. The Pakistani army, battling domestic extremists, is unwilling to reprise the 1990s, when it helped arm and train jihadists in Indian Kashmir (though it has refused Indian demands to crush them entirely).
But violence in Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, is now fanning separatists’ hopes for a revival of their cause. It was triggered by the killing last month by Indian security forces of Burhan Wani, a popular commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, an insurgent group Delhi appears determined to shut down. People in the Kashmir valley, on the Indian-controlled side, defied curfews to turn out for his funeral. Through skilful use of social media the 22-year-old Mr Wani had become especially popular with a younger generation resentful of Indian rule.
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