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The time has come to carefully assess the U.S. motivations in widening the gyre of the Afghan war, which commenced seven years ago. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States armed forces, Admiral Mike Mullen, has lent his voice to the incipient idea of a "regional" approach to the Afghanistan problem. He said the over-arching strategy for success in Afghanistan must be regional in focus and include not just Afghanistan but also Pakistan and India. The three South Asian countries, he stressed, must figure a way to reduce tensions among them, which involves addressing the "long-standing problems that increase instability in the region." Adm. Mullen then referred to Kashmir as one such problem to underline that if India-Pakistan tensions decreased, it "allowed the Pakistani leadership to focus on the west [border with Afghanistan]." He regretted that the terror attack in Mumbai raised India-Pakistan tensions , and "in the near term...

NEW DELHI, India—Feb 19 2007: Wahid Khan had come to the Old Delhi Railway Station here last night to see off his relatives who were going to Pakistan to attend a marriage. Shock and disbelief writ large on his face, Khan, a resident of adjoining Ghaziabad, was back at the station this morning frantically looking for information about his relatives as news came in of twin explosions on the Samjhauta Express . Khan's 70-year-old mother, brother Tariqat (25) and friend Isteghar were on the train. " They were going to Pakistan to attend a marriage function. They were so happy to be able to go to Pakistan. I am just hoping somebody tells me they are safe and sound ," he said. Sixty-eight-year-old Mohammad Ali came to the station looking for his son Tanveer's father-in-law, Afzal Khan who had come from Pakistan to attend a function and was going back. Afzal's wife and his 18-year-old daughter Tanya were also with him on the train and their whereabouts were unknown. Al...

A young girl is sitting in front of me, ironing the white shalwar kameez that is her uniform ,ready for school the next day. We have been chatting about the usual stuff - clothes, movies, school... I ask her about the halats and how it affects her - halat meaning the situation. No more needs to be said: she knows I am talking about. what has repeatedly been termed The Kashmir Issue. "So many girls have been raped in Kashmir and so many of them are known to me," she said. "One girl was interrogated and raped in front of her begging father-in-law." She sees the tears in my eyes, folds the kameez she has just finished ironing and picks up the shalwar. "This is what happens all the time - our lives are built around deaths, rapes, murders. For two days we go to college and then for the next four days it's closed because of a curfew or something going on." This is not a joke to them, there is no childlike joy in being given a day off school. She feels it ...