October 7, 2014: In Kashmir Indian troops have killed 14 Islamic terrorists and arrested six others in the last five weeks. This happened in the midst of major rescue efforts, the result of extensive flooding in the province. At the same time Indian intelligence believes at least 200 Islamic terrorists are waiting on the border for opportunities to sneak in. These men are needed to replace the many Islamic terrorists the Indian security forces have killed or captured in the last few months. It is believed that the recent upsurge in Pakistani army attacks on Indian border posts is an effort to distract the border security so the Islamic terrorists can sneak in. This is not unusual. Senior Indian officials have told their Pakistani counterparts that these incidents were inflaming anti-Pakistan feelings throughout India and creating popular political pressure to respond with more force. In short, the Pakistanis have been warned that the continued border violations could escalate out of control. Pakistan politicians complain that they cannot control their own military and India points out that since both sides have nuclear weapons this Pakistani problem could have dire results. Pakistani military leaders consider it essential to maintain military tensions with India otherwise they would not be able to justify their large budget and considerable political power.

The Pakistani Army offensive against North Waziristan has killed over a thousand Islamic terrorists so far as well as nearly a hundred soldiers. The fighting has caused the Pakistani Taliban to fall apart as an organization. In August the Pakistani Taliban split into factions and one faction (the Punjabi one) declared it was laying down its arms and would from now on work peacefully towards its goal of religious rule in Pakistan. Meanwhile the Pakistani Taliban that are still fighting have lost about half its strength as a new faction, composed of Mehsud and Wazir tribesmen (the largest tribes in North Waziristan) renounced allegiance to Pakistani Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah and formed a new group called Jamaatul Ahrar. One reason for this split was the fact that Fazlullah is based across the border in Afghanistan (Kunar province).  Jamaatul Ahrar then pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban, who continue to be protected by the Pakistani military via sanctuary in Baluchistan (across the border from Helmand and Kandahar). In response to all this the remaining Pakistani Taliban pledged its allegiance to ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). All t his is a major win for the Pakistani army because Jamaatul Ahrar is, in effect, pledging to no longer support terrorist violence inside Pakistan. The army tends to go easy on Islamic terrorists who confine their mayhem to India, Afghanistan and other foreign targets. Meanwhile what remains of the Pakistani Taliban have joined forces with ISIL, the most hated Islamic terrorist group on the planet at the moment.  

The Pakistani offensive in North Waziristan has been a big help for the polio vaccination effort, which has been a failure in most of North Waziristan because the Islamic terrorists there threatened to kill (and sometimes did) the vaccination personnel. Thus there have been no vaccinations there since 2012. This has led to a large number of polio cases (over 200 so far this year), mostly in the tribal areas. Among the refugees from the North Waziristan fighting are over 200,000 children who have never been vaccinated. Some 70 percent of recent polio cases in Pakistan occurred in North Waziristan. Now the vaccination teams are able to vaccinate most of the North Waziristan children in safety. This won’t reduce the high number of polio cases this year but will make a big difference next year. The Taliban, and many other Islamic terrorist groups believe polio vaccinations are a Western plot to poison Moslem children.

October 6, 2014: On the India/Pakistan border (Punjab) Pakistani soldiers fired mortar shells three kilometers into India killing five civilians and wounding 25. Pakistan said this was retaliation for earlier Indian shelling that had retaliated for a similar Indian attack on Pakistan that left four civilians dead. Pakistani troops also fired on ten Indian border posts. In the midst of all this Indian troops caught three Pakistani Islamic terrorists trying to cross the border into Kashmir.

Pakistan announced a program to allow an additional 14,000 young men from the northwest tribal territories to join the army over the next five years. The army will also offer 1,500 scholarships for children in the tribal areas to attend schools on military bases. There are already a lot of tribal men in the military, but the military is not easy to join, as it is a good job and the military leadership wants people it can depend on. By offering more military jobs to the tribal people the army is trying to reduce the anti-military attitudes that have long been the norm in the tribal territories.

October 5, 2014: In Kashmir an Indian soldier was killed by a landmine which also wounded another soldier. Elsewhere in Kashmir another army patrol found a terrorist weapons cache containing three firearms, several hundred rounds of ammo, several grenades, radios and other equipment.

Pakistani troops fired on Indian border posts in Kashmir. Pakistan said this was in retaliation for Indian troops firing into Pakistan earlier in the day. India denied that it had fired first but did return fire when shot at by Pakistani troops.

In northwest Pakistan (South Waziristan) an American UAV fired two missiles and killed five Uzbek Islamic terrorists. Pakistani government officially protests these operations. Nationalist politicians and much of the mass media also oppose the UAV operations and opinion polls show that over 60 percent of Pakistanis agree with this anti-American attitude. But the government does not attack the UAVs because the missile attacks kill Islamic terrorists that are attacking and killing Pakistanis regularly.

October 4, 2014: In Pakistan the Pakistani Taliban declared its support for ISIL . Most other Islamic terrorist organizations are hostile to ISIL, which is seen as greedy and too extreme for most Islamic extremists. Given the large number of Islamic terrorist already in Pakistan, that was thought to make it difficult for ISIL to get established in Pakistan.  Apparently those attitudes only slowed down ISIL a bit because the Pakistani Taliban is the largest Islamic terrorist organization in the area. The current boost in ISIL popularity was largely the result of ISIL murdering (by beheading) Western captives and releasing videos of the killings on the Internet.  

In Kashmir Pakistan troops fired at Indian border posts. There were no casualties.

In southwest Pakistan (Baluchistan) a suicide bomber in a Shia neighborhood of Quetta killed four people and wounded many more. This was more of the religious violence by Sunni Moslems against various smaller Islamic sects as well as non-Moslems. This has been a problem for over half a century and the government has not been able to eliminate it.

October 3, 2014: In Kashmir (on the India/Pakistan border) Pakistani troops fired into India, claiming to be responding to fire from the Indian side.

In northwest Pakistan (Khyber) the air force bombed three Islamic terrorist hideouts and killed at least 15 people.

October 2, 2014: In eastern India (Chhattisgarh) two clashes with Maoists left one leftist rebel dead and another arrested.

In Kashmir (on the India/Pakistan border) Pakistani troops fired mortar shells into India, wounding six civilians.

In the Pakistani tribal territories (outside the city of Peshawar) a bomb went off in a bus killing seven people.

Two Pakistani warships visited Sri Lanka, the large island-nation off the southern tip of India. This was a good will visit meant to annoy India.

September 29, 2014: In northwest Pakistan (North Waziristan) warplanes and armed helicopters attacked five Islamic terrorists hideouts leaving at least fifteen dead.

September 28, 2014: In northwest Pakistan (Orakzai) a bomb went off and killed eight people in a refugee camp for people fleeing the fighting in nearby North Waziristan. Another 17 were wounded. The bomb was hidden in a motorcycle. In nearby South Waziristan an American UAV fired two missiles and killed four Islamic terrorists.

In eastern India railroad officials in Bihar and Jharkhand backed off, at the advice of police, from cancelling 28 trains because of Maoist threats to bomb the tracks. State level police officials said they had the security situation under control. Meanwhile police arrested a senior Maoist leader in Jharkhand.

September 27, 2014: In the last two days Indian and Chinese troops have backed off from contested territory along the border. This was done because of recent peace talks. These talks will resume on October 16^th while a meeting to confirm the troop movements will occur on September 30^th. These agreements did not favor India, which withdrew its troops from territory on the Indians side of the border. But the Indian government does not want to endanger Chinese plans to invest a lot more money into India. China has been known to use such investments to encourage cooperation in other matters. India knows it is being played but does not care as long as it is paid.

September 25, 2014: For the second time this month a Chinese submarine visited Sri Lanka. The sub was a nuclear powered Type 091 and it was the first time a Chinese nuclear sub had visited Sri Lanka. Earlier in the month a diesel-electric Type 039 visited. In 2013 China agreed, as part of a $2.2 billion loan for economic projects, to provide training for troops in Sri Lanka. This deal will also include delivery of more military equipment. Sri Lanka (which has long had tense relations with India) has become the beneficiary of Chinese economic and military aid over the last decade and has become very friendly with the Chinese and Pakistan. Sri Lanka received crucial military aid from China during the war with Tamil rebels (who received a lot of aid from Tamils in southern India and were finally defeated in 2009). India can't become too friendly with Sri Lanka without causing political problems with its own Tamils (many of whom still support the defeated Tamil rebels of Sri Lanka, where Tamils have long been a troublesome minority.)

September 24, 2014: In northwest Pakistan (North Waziristan) an American UAV fired four missiles and killed ten Islamic terrorists. The attack took place 500 meters from the Afghan border.

Afghanistan released a list of 168 terror groups based in Pakistan that regularly make attacks in Afghanistan. Some of these groups are currently under attack in North Waziristan but most are still enjoying sanctuary in Pakistan and freedom from police interference. Pakistan denies that any such sanctuary exists but Afghanistan and India have long lists of attacks, victims and captured Islamic terrorists who spoke freely of their sanctuary and other support from the Pakistani government.

September 23, 2014: In the Pakistani tribal territories (the city of Peshawar) a suicide car bomber tried (and failed) to kill a senior army officer. Four people (including one soldier) were killed and 24 other people were wounded.

September 22, 2014: In eastern Afghanistan (Kunar) 23 artillery shells from Pakistan landed in remote areas. This is the second such incident in a week and these two attacks have left one dead and seven wounded. In August over 200 rockets and shells (artillery and mortar) were fired from Pakistan. In the last year Pakistani troops have fired over 5,000 projectiles into Afghanistan, forcing over 10,000 civilians to flee their homes, some for good. The Afghan government complains to Pakistan but the attacks keep happening. That is because Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of doing nothing about the anti-Pakistan Islamic terrorists who take shelter in Afghanistan and regularly cross the border to carry out attacks in Pakistan.

September 20, 2014: In northwest Pakistan (North Waziristan) soldiers clashed with Islamic terrorists, leaving one soldier and three terrorists dead.

In eastern Afghanistan (Kunar) 61 rockets from Pakistan landed in remote areas.  There were no casualties.

September 19, 2014: In northwest Pakistan (Khyber) four Islamic terrorists were killed by a roadside bomb. No one took credit for this attack, which may have been an accident or the result of a feud between Islamic terrorist groups.

September 18, 2014:  In northwest Pakistan (North Waziristan) air strikes on three Islamic terrorist hideouts left at least 23 dead.