Malik Khadim\u2019s lips tremble, his voice chokes and his head dips as he raises a hand to his grief-stricken face. It\u2019s a vain effort to stem the tears gushing down his gaunt and weatherbeaten cheeks. <\/p>\n
Khadim is a farmer who lives on the Pakistani side of the de-facto border in the disputed Kashmir region known as the Line of Control, or LoC, between India and Pakistan. As so many civilians on both sides of this conflict have done, he is currently grieving the loss of a loved one. In this case, his brother. <\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, gunmen stormed a mountain resort in the Indian controlled part of Kashmir killing 26 people, mostly Indian tourists. The killings sparked widespread public revulsion across India and this already heavily militarized remote border region has been on edge ever since. <\/p>\n
Both Khadim and Farouk\u2019s son deny that allegation, saying that he was, like them, an impoverished farmer, chasing cattle who strayed toward the unmarked and unfenced LoC in the nearby forest. <\/p>\n
In response to the tourist massacre, India\u2019s Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to chase the \u201cterrorists\u201d to \u201cthe ends of the earth.\u201d India was quick to blame Pakistan, Pakistan denied involvement, and tensions have mounted since. <\/p>\n
Both sides have expelled each other\u2019s diplomats and civilians, as well as closed airspace to each other\u2019s airlines. India has also withdrawn from the 1960 Indus Water Treaty that has tempered the tempestuous relations here for decades. <\/p>\n
Officials on the Pakistani side of the border have said they expect India to attack and vow, as a matter of \u201cmilitary doctrine,\u201d to respond. <\/p>\n
The current language in Islamabad is tougher than this reporter remembers when here covering the Kargil War of 1999. That high-altitude, monthslong border battle, just one of several wars and skirmishes over Kashmir, killed more than a thousand troops, according to the most conservative calculations, the year after Pakistan joined India in becoming a nuclear armed nation. <\/p>\n
In the words of a senior Pakistani security official, now is \u201cthe moment\u201d to change the dynamic in relations with India, as political relations with New Delhi have at times improved but military attitudes have toughened in recent decades. <\/p>\n
Boulder-strewn tracks at altitudes of more than 10,000 feet threaded through snowfields, around fresh rock falls and through forests of the towering native Deodar cedar tree. At times, their giant trunks appeared to offer the only potential salvation from one wrong move and a plunge over terrifyingly precipitous drops into raging rivers below. <\/p>\n
Just a few hours of this bone-jarring journey are enough to understand why neither Pakistan nor India have ever claimed a decisive victory here. It is just too rugged for an easy win. <\/p>\n
Yet both nations want this region, to control all the water that torrents down from its snowcapped peaks. And, despite the challenging terrain, several million people split across the LoC call this disputed land home. <\/p>\n
Life is hard here: Elderly women and children haul huge bundles of sticks off the vertiginous slopes; rudimentary farms elbow for room among the mighty Deodar; and meager villages cling to the hillsides where skinny water buffalo, a prized procession here, scavenge for grass. <\/p>\n