Deadly Shelling Erupts in Kashmir Between India and Pakistan After Pilot Is Freed

NEW DELHI — Intense shelling erupted along the disputed border between India and Pakistan on Saturday, killing several civilians and making it clear that hostilities between the two nuclear-armed nations were hardly over — only a day after Pakistan handed over a captured Indian fighter pilot in what it called a “good-will gesture.”

At least five civilians and two soldiers were killed, according to officials on both sides.

At the same time, independent security analysts continue to questionIndia’s claims this past week that it had killed “a very large number” of terrorists at a major training camp in a cross-border airstrike. The bold strike set off an enormous mobilization of Indian and Pakistani forces and a cycle of military attacks, bringing South Asia to red alert.

Michael Sheldon, a researcher at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, said on Saturday that after studying satellite imagery of the area in Pakistan that India had bombed, he could see “no evidence any buildings were hit.” He added, “It appears to me they didn’t hit their targets.”

Instead, he said, all publicly available evidence and accounts from witnesses on the ground indicated that the Indian bombs had landed in an unpopulated forest and had taken out some pine trees. He set out his argument in an online article titled “Surgical Strike in Pakistan a Botched Operation?”


The administration of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who faces an election in a few months, had presented the airstrike as a robust response against a terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, that claimed responsibility for a devastating suicide bombing in February that killed more than 40 Indian troops. ContinueReading

Bosnia Herzegovina marks Independence Day

BELGRADE, Serbia

Bosnia Herzegovina on Thursday marked the 27th anniversary of its independence.

Independence Day is treated as an ordinary day in the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, one of two constitutional and legal entities of the country. The other is the Bosniak-majority Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which observes the holiday.

Bosnia and Herzegovina became independent from the former Yugoslavia when an independence referendum was held on Feb. 29 and March 1, 1992.

Most Serbs boycotted the referendum while the 64 percent of the population voted for independence.

The results of the referendum were announced on March 6,1992 and Bosnia and Herzegovina was admitted to the United Nations on May 22,1992.

Bosnia and Herzegovina became an independent state, but had to suffer a bloody battle for independence and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.

In the country, where Bosniak Muslims make up more than half of the population, the traces of the bloody war in 1992-1995 are still not completely erased. The complex political structure of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war, does not allow the country to fully stabilize.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's main objective is to become a member of the European Union.

The country expects to receive a "candidate country" status in the current year. NATO membership, which is another strategic target of the country has been impeded by the opposition of Serbs in the country.