Holy War as Diversion Tactic
By Abhinav Aima, doctoral student, School of Journalism, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

Pakistan was left with a situation wherein the very fundamentalist forces it had created can overthrow order in Pakistan if they are not channeled into Kashmir. Pakistan desperately needs to focus the attention of the thousands of trained guerrillas in its camps to pursue the jihad against India in Kashmir, rather than sit around and foment trouble in Pakistan. Kashmir has is an issue that rallies the deeply divided Pakistani masses around the flag. Otherwise, inherent differences among the Pakistani Shia and Sunni, Punjabis and Sindhis, Tribals, landowners and wealthy industrialists threaten to tear the country apart. There is also the increased risk that the unstoppable rhetoric of radical Islam may indeed overtake the largely moderate Pakistani society, turning them into refugees from a fundamentalist Taliban style orthodox and repressive interpretation of the Islamic code in their own country. 

Source: Excerpt from "Kashmir - How Will Paradise Heal Itself?" June 7, 2000. Online at http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~aa342389/kashmir.html