18-05-2025: On the 22nd of April, terrorists opened fire on a popular meadow near Pahalgam in Indian administered Kashmir, killing 26 people. All were of Indian origin, bar one from Nepal. The Resistance Front (TRF), a front group linked to the banned Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the assault.[1] This unspeakable atrocity would have caused global outrage if something like it had occurred in the West, and potentially pushes the world towards a war between two nuclear armed nations. India blamed Pakistan for the attack, and launched air strikes against Pakistani military bases, which in turn led to retaliatory strikes by the Pakistani military against Indian military targets. This included a mid-air dog fight between Pakistani and Indian jet fighter aircraft. The strikes and counterstrikes went on for four days before both sides agreed to a ceasefire on May 10.[2] Both sides appeared to be aware of the danger of escalation to a nuclear war and pulled back.
USAID
At a US Congress hearing in February, reports were given which indicated that the USAID (US Agency for International Development) had sent over 2 billion dollars to the Hamas terrorist militia in Palestine since the October 7 violence in 2023. The hearing was also informed that USAID had also funded the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a front for LeT, which was also responsible for the 2008 Mumbai shooting and bombing attacks which slaughtered 166 people and injured 300. Money from USAID to FIF was sent through the Michigan based Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD) which has ties to multiple jihadist organisations in South Asia.[3] Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed region, with an Indian administered region, a Pakistan administered region and also a Chinese administered region. The hostilities between India and Pakistan date back decades, but since the rise of the socialistic People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the last 25 years, US imperialism has intervened into the region in a vast manner using outright terrorism and war provocations for its geopolitical goals.
Washington also orchestrates the mendacious Balochistan separatist movement and its fabricated “Balochistan Liberation Army” (BLA), which carries out appalling terrorism aimed against Pakistan. In the aftermath of the Pahalgam crime, the BLA claimed responsibility for 71 coordinated attacks at over 51 locations just in the second week of May.[4] In March, the BLA hijacked the Jaffar Express train and took nearly 500 passengers hostage, initiating a fire fight with the Pakistani military. The Pakistani military claimed it killed 27 BLA militants, while the BLA claimed it had killed 30 soldiers.[5] The bloodthirsty BLA has a long history of targeting civilians and security forces for execution. It is covertly funded by the US Congress funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED),[6] though with the Trump Administration’s cuts this may now be attenuated. The contrived “Free Balochistan” movement is buttressed by dubious advocacy groups centered in Washington and London.
CPEC
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a major component of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has benefited Pakistan enormously. The PRC has invested at least $25 billion in CPEC, which has created hundreds of thousands of jobs, built railways and highways, including a 27 kilometre high-speed train in Lahore, and the port in Gwadar.[7] Washington is desperate to put a stop to this, and has used the BLA to carry out terrorist assaults often murdering Chinese engineers. In March 2024, a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy in Dasu in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver. The same dam construction site was the target of an attack on a bus in 2021, which killed 13 people, including 9 Chinese nationals.[8] Arguably, the “Free Balochistan” movement was cut out of whole cloth with the intention of fuelling war and conflict, derailing CPEC and the BRI, and preventing Pakistan’s development.
If this was not enough, the former President of Pakistan Imran Khan was removed in a US backed coup and is now jailed with a 14-year sentence. His “crime” was to maintain good relations with the PRC, and also with the Russian Federation – where he refused to back Washington’s proxy war in Ukraine. Workers internationally must demand the immediate release of Khan, and an end to US meddling in Pakistan. Kashmir is now being used against India, seemingly as a punishment for Indian Prime Minister Modi maintaining his course of integration in the non-imperialist BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) alliance. BRICS now has ten full members and nine partner members and is now capable of offering a financial and economic alternative to the Western led imperialist order. It is true that Modi is also betraying BRICS by remaining a member of the Quad (India, US, Japan, Australia) which is a Western bloc for war on Red China. Yet the US empire, albeit one which is faltering and floundering, demands total and not partial subservience.
Washington is facilitating terrorism in Kashmir with the triple purpose of intimidating India away from BRICS, provoking war between India and Pakistan and driving a wedge between the PRC and the Russian Federation. In the days of the former Soviet Union, Russia forged close ties with India, which led to the PRC forging close ties with Pakistan in response, as part of the Sino-Soviet split. Yet those days are decades in the past, and today Russia and the PRC have almost unbreakable links forged as a necessary bulwark against being both targeted for destruction by the Pentagon. Imperialism’s overarching aim is the dismantling of BRICS, and the break-up of both China and Russia into small pieces. This cannot be achieved short of World War III, towards which the planet is being driven.
Imperialism is willing to accelerate unimaginable terrorism and war to save its skin. Currently, it is locked in a losing battle with the tides of history. The working class needs to tactically defend the BRICS against imperialism, while raising itself to power in the US, Europe and the West. With Marxist vanguard parties blazing the path forward, terrorism and imperialist war can be stopped in its path. Socialism – the world’s resources for the world’s people – is today potentially within reach.
Workers League
E: workersleague@protonmail.com
[1] www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2025/Apr/22/28-killed-over-a-dozen-injured-after-terrorists-attack-tourists-in-jks-pahalgam (14-05-2025)
[2] www.tbsnews.net/world/south-asia/pakistan-launches-retaliatory-strikes-india-1138356 (14-05-2025)
[3] www.indiatoday.in/india/story/usaid-accused-supporting-hamas-laskhar-linked-group-congress-hearing-2686828-2025-02-28 (14-05-2025)
[4] www.livemint.com/news/india/what-is-baloch-liberation-army-that-targeted-pakistan-military-sites-and-sent-a-message-to-india-11747110287876.html (14-05-2025)
[5] www.independent.co.uk/asia/south-asia/pakistan-balochistan-liberation-army-attack-b2713401.html (14-05-2025)
[6] www.globalresearch.ca/destabilizing-pakistan-bookending-washingtons-china-policy/5684659 (14-05-2025)
[7] thechinaacademy.org/ten-years-of-the-china-pakistan-economic-corridor-what-has-changed/ (14-05-2025)
[8] www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/five-chinese-nationals-killed-suicide-bomb-attack-pakistan- (14-05-2025)
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