A latest travel guide published in the US ranks Pakistan and India high among the worlds most dangerous places, although its ranking on India is based on outdated information and highly exaggerated and misleading conclusions.
On a star scale from one to five five being the most dangerous both Pakistan and India rate four stars in the Fielding Guide, The Worlds Most Dangerous Places.
According to its author Robert Young Pelton, about five to 10 people die every day as a result of political violence in Karachi. Like most large cities, Karachi has its share of crime, Pelton says. In addition to politically motivated kidnapping and robbery, not to mention the frequent bombings of government facilities and public utilities, vehicular hijacking and theft are a common occurrence.
Islamabad and Rawalpindi dont fare much better. Pelton notes that in Islamabad most incidents experienced by the American community are committed by servants employed in the household, while Rawalpindi has experienced some bombings in public areas, such as markets, cinemas and parks. Nor does it get much better outside the big cities, the guide says.
Pelton warns that in Sindh Province, Dacoits are well armed and will attack travellers even with trusty police escort. They have been known to stop entire trains or vehicle caravans, often kidnapping and killing passengers.
The same goes for Punjab province, where kidnapping, robbery and burglaries are carried out by gangs of professional criminals, and Lahore in particular is famous for rip-offs of tourists in cheap hotels, bogus travellers cheques and other tourist crime.
The traveller who succeeds in avoiding being kidnapped, robbed, burgled or bombed faces yet another hazard, the guide says. Pakistan may not be the dirtiest place in the world, Pelton writes, but it is dirty enough to make some Siberian mining towns look positively bucolic. In other words, if the water doesnt get one, the food will. Pelton recommends travellers carry plenty of medicine for diarrhea and assures one that there are good medical facilities in all the major towns in Pakistan. On the brighter side, Pakistan provides excellent opportunities for winter sports, including mountaineering and hiking in the Himalayan hill stations.
Neighbouring India ranks right up there with Pakistan, receiving four stars due in part to the Tamil Tigers in the south (sic) and the Sikh separatists in the north, but mainly because of Hindu-Muslim tensions since the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, where the fallout has been felt as far away as Great Britain, Pelton remarks.
Every time a bomb goes off, and they go off a lot, the suspects include Indians, Pakistani agents, Kashmiri separatists, Sikh terrorists, Maoist rebels, Sri Lankan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam guerrillas, Muslim militants, drug traffickers and even gangsters, he says.
According to the guide, permission from the Indian government is required to visit the states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, parts of Kulu and Spiti districts in Himachal Pradesh, the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir, areas of Uttar Pradesh, and the area west of National Highway 15 running from Ganganagar to Sanchar in Rajasthan.
As far as the rest of India is concerned, travel by road after dark is not recommended and train passengers have been subjected to robberies and schedule disruptions due to protest actions, Pelton maintains.
Pelton explains the low two-star ranking for Sri Lanka, despite the spate of assassinations: thats because the fighting between the government and the Tamil Tigers is contained in the northern and eastern areas of the island and travel to those places is restricted by Sri Lankan defence regulations.
