The Indians charge that rebel militias backed with arms and support from Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence Agency, make regular incursions into the area. Enthusiasm for conventional and even tactical nuclear war in the Kashmir is intense on both sides. The nuclear tests in 1998 precipitated wild approval in the streets of both capitals, and the respective sides continue their saber rattling rhetoric, and a buildup of conventional arms. Pakistan's economy is close to collapse, but the government continues to fortify the frontier, perhaps seeing the potential war in Kashmir as a distraction from problems at home. Just last month, India conducted war games along its border region with Pakistan, mobilizing 20,000 troops for the exercise.
Diplomatic contacts are limited.
The intelligence services on both sides seem notoriously unable to read the intentions of the other government, and some observers suggest that both India and Pakistan have accepted the inevitability of some kind of nuclear exchange in the near future. During the late 1970s and 80s, U.S. foreign policy encouraged the support of a coalition of Muslim groups loosely known as the Mujahadeen, which fought against the Soviet-backed government in Afghanistan. Religion became an important rallying point, and Islamic guerillas were recruited from as far away Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates. Ironically, one of those joining the U.S.-backed holy war was Osama bin Laden. With the Soviets gone, Afghanistan quickly descended into civil war.