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A convoy transporting Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel from Jammu to Srinagar traveling on NH-44 was attacked by a car bomb on 14 February in Pulwama, which was discovered to be a terrorist attack, one of the deadliest attacks in two decades stemming from the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.
More than 40 CRPF personnel were martyred and dozens injured. The attack has been claimed by the Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) which is headed by Masood Azhar, who has had a previous encounter with India during the Indian Airlines IC 814 hijacking of 1999, when the hijackers demanded the release of the Masood Azhar the founder of JeM which was allegedly part of the 2001 Indian Parliament attacks as well. The attacker who rammed a car into the convoy with explosives was a 20-year-old Kashmiri resident from Lethipora village. This incident has led to widespread anger around the country and even in the international sphere where President Trump has condemned the attack. Pakistan has been accused of harboring this terror outfit in its soil but have denied backing any terrorist organization.
Prime Minister Modi expressed his solidarity with the victims and their families condemning the attack. This incident has further escalated the tension between the two nuclear-armed countries especially months before the elections in India. The Indian Air Force conducted a non-military pre-emptive air strike in areas believed to be hubs of JeM in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and also in Balakot, Pakistan. Pakistan described the airstrike as "uncalled for" and an attack on their sovereignty. USA, France, and the UK have moved a new proposal in the UN Security Council designating JeM as a terrorist organization and its chief Masood Azhar, a global terrorist. Due to the mounting global pressure on Pakistan, they have taken 44 members of JeM as a 'preventive detention' after India handed over the dossier to Pakistan to take action against JeM and Masood Azhar.
The Jaish Al-Adl claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack that killed at least 20 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel on the Khash-Zahedan Road in the Sistan-Baluchestan Province of Iran on February 13, 2019. The Iranian Parliament has claimed that the attacks were planned and carried out from inside Pakistan.
The Jaish Al-Adl (Army of Justice) is a Salafi-jihadist group that is known to carry out cross-border attacks from Pakistan in Iran's neighbouring Sistan and Baluchestan province. The group had previously claimed responsibility for a February 2 attack on an IRGC paramilitary (Basij) base in Nikshahr (Sistan and Baluchestan province), which left one IRGC member dead and at least five others wounded.
In an eerie similarity to the Pulwama attacks that took place in India around the same time, the IRGC claim that a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle into a bus that was transporting troops in Sistan-Baluchistan Province. Sistan-Baluchistan is a volatile area near Iran's borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan where militant groups and drug smugglers frequently operate. The province is populated mainly by Sunni Muslim ethnic Baluchis.
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived on a two-day visit to India this Tuesday (Feb 19th) in an attempt to boost Saudi-Indian ties following his high profile visit to Pakistan recently. His tour in the region comes at a time of increased hostilities between Islamabad and New Delhi after a suicide bomber in the India-administered Kashmir region killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary personnel.
Prince Mohammed's Indian visit sought to boost trade and energy ties. To this effect, India and Saudi Arabia signed five agreements on infrastructure, investment, tourism, housing, broad-casting and for the setting up of a "strategic partnership council". MBS announced an agreement to look at initial investment in its National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, a quasi-sovereign wealth fund, to help accelerate the building of ports and highways in India.
At a joint press conference with the Saudi Arabian delegation the Indian Prime Minister addressed the Pulwama attack and claimed there is an agreement with Riyadh "to put pressure on all countries supporting terrorism". Prince Mohammed responded by saying "terrorism and extremism is a common concern" for India and Saudi Arabia. However, he did not mention Pakistan. Reportedly Saudi Arabia has announced agreements with Pakistan worth $20bn.
Image Source: Picgra, Daily Excelsior, Al Jazeera