India plans to build wall along Kashmir border

India is planning to construct a wall along the 198-km border with Pakistan in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region, Press TV reports.

The planned wall, 10 meters high and almost 42 meters wide, will be higher and wider than both the Berlin Wall and the separation barrier that Israel has created in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The wall is set to pass through 118 villages in the districts of Jammu, Kathua and Samba.

Indian media have said the wall is being erected to stop infiltrators from Pakistan. Many, however, believe the fence will be more symbolic and will not have practical purposes.

“For us this wall have no significance, maybe it will stop floods from reaching us, but it will not stop mortar shells and heavy artillery,” said a local in the bordering villages between India and Pakistan.

“Erecting a wall is no solution between India and Pakistan, it is useless,” added another villager.

Analysts say the existence of a wall between India and Pakistan will only reinforce partition, and many believe the wall will only create more hostility between the two neighbors.

“Here is the case where two countries in the neighborhood, which shared a lot otherwise in history, are creating new walls, very high walls, very formidable ones to separate each other,” said Noor Muhammad Baba, a political analyst.

The conflict between Pakistan and India has waned over the recent years after the two countries agreed to a ceasefire in 2003. However, tensions have flared up in recent months following a string of cross-border attacks and killings.

Jammu and Kashmir has been the flashpoint of a dispute between the two South Asian rivals for six decades now.