Pakistan's proxy war in Kashmir against India got bloody...

via DW.com

At least 41 police paramilitaries were killed and many others wounded in an attack on their convoy in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said on Friday. The bombing is believed to be the single deadliest terror attack in the region's history.

Muneer Ahmed Khan, a senior police officer, said the attack occurred on a key highway on Thursday, as the convoy reached the town of Lethpora on the outskirts of the disputed region's main city, Srinagar. He said one bus was destroyed and at least five other vehicles damaged by the blast.

Sanjay Sharma, a spokesman for India's paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force, said many of the injured were in critical condition. "The blast was so powerful that one cannot recognize whether the vehicle was a bus or a truck. Just pieces of mangled steel remain of the vehicle," he said.

A paramilitary official said the bus was carrying at least 35 soldiers. Khan said soldiers and counterinsurgency police reinforcements had been deployed in the area.

Story here.

This thing is getting messy.

First the Indian govt is under fire for the lack of armor on the bus carrying the paramilitary police.  It had a then layer of steel that didn't even pause the bullets fired by terrorists.  These are the same buses that the Indian govt claimed had been armored for the protection of the troops.

Second is the issue with the deployment itself.  Kashmir has been a hotbed of drama for a long long long time.  If we can decry the length of the war in Afghanistan then the people of India are practically anguished by how long the fighting in Kashmir has dragged on.  It's almost India's Vietnam!

Last is the retaliation that's been promised.  The Indian govt is promising, to paraphrase, eye watering retaliation for this attack...while naming and blaming Pakistan.

Pakistan vs. India.  It should be an interesting fight....as long as it doesn't go nuclear.