Pakistan: Climate Stresses Push Kashmir's Poor Into Militancy, Pakistan Experts Warn

Jan 27, 2015 | Roshan Din Shad, Thomson Reuters Foundation
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Financial hardship after a failed apple crop forced Aqeel Ahmed to give up his studies aged 20 and join a militant group fighting Indian rule across the border in the disputed territory of Kashmir.

His family, as in many remote villages in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, had banked on earning half a million rupees ($5,000) from their orchard that year. But a sudden cold snap followed by torrential rains and a frost wrecked the apple blossom, dashing their hopes of making enough to buy food.