Looking Down The Barrel

India and Pakistan rev up their militaries, raising fears of a new war between nuclear-armed enemies

Kirat Chand lives on one of the hottest spots on the globe, the disputed border between India and Pakistan in Kashmir. Life is never tranquil in his Galar village. Troops on either side continually take potshots at each other. These days the situation is nothing less than explosive. On Dec. 23, Pakistan lobbed an 81-mm mortar into Chand's courtyard, the first time such heavy ordnance has been used in the area since 1971. The mortar landed in mud and failed to detonate. Now army engineers are trying to extricate it, whacking around the shell with heavy pickaxes. "If that thing had...

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