The Indian Ministry of Defence has prepared a shopping list of armaments to be purchased from the world market amounting to rupees sixty thousand crores. The list includes fighter aircraft, helicopters, missiles, and many other lethal weapons. A number of countries are vying with each other to take the Indian orders. Similarly, Pakistan side is shopping for millions of dollars worth armaments. Only the F-16 aircraft being purchased from USA are worth over five hundred million dollars. Both the countries are equipping their defence forces with the most modern and lethal weapons. This is in addition to the weapons of mass destruction which both sides have been stock piling for quite sometime. India is among the largest importers of defence equipment in the world whose cost runs into billions of dollars. In fact both India as well as Pakistan spend a sizeable chunk of their annual budget on defence and defence related items. This region represents the largest market for the manufacturers of defence related items from all over the world. According to information available from the International Institute of Strategic Studies in 2003 the world arms spending was $ 956 billion. Permanent Security Council members, USA, Russia, U.K., France, and China dominate the world trade in arms sales. India’s expenditure on arms was $ 22 billion and it ranked at 8th position in the world. Pakistan spent during the corresponding period $ 3.7 billion on arms. The USA because of its self imposed role of a “Global Cop” is the largest spender accounting for almost half the entire world’s spending. In a number of countries in the world especially in Europe and America, industries related to manufacture of defence equipment form an important sector of their economy. These industries in the developed countries (professing to be the leaders of the free and democratic world) apart from earning large amounts of foreign exchange also provide huge employment potential to their citizens. The sale of F-16 fighters to Pakistan ensured 5,000 jobs for Americans in Texas, the home state of President Bush. A similar purchase of F-18 planes by India would provide 8,000 more jobs! In order to promote their sales, the armament firms undertake all sorts of overt and covert activities. They have dozens of commission agents in all potential buyer countries where they bribe one and all. The bribes are given both at home as well as abroad to promote their sales. The Bofors scam and the recent Barrak deal are links in the same chain. In fact, these armament firms indulge in dissemination of false reports concerning military and naval programmes of various countries in order to stimulate arms expenditure. These firms have organised international armament rings through which armament race is accentuated by playing one country against the other. They also try to influence public opinion through the control of newspapers in their own and foreign countries. In developed countries these firms use subtle means by supporting commercials, journalists, and pouring money into Hollywood to produce war movies. In fact, the weapons makers are now framing the U.S. Foreign and Military policies. Major defence contractors own CBS, and NBC, two of the largest US television networks. Arms contractors contributed at least $ 12 million to US Congress who actually vote on how much to spend on defence spending. Their ads and propaganda is for minimising casualties and their attempt is to make people believe that there will be no killing in future wars. They project the minimum number of casualties suffered by Americans in various global conflicts but never truly reveal the foreign casualties which amount to hundreds of thousands. A Lockheed advertisement once claimed that “the perception of peace means less jobs for Americans”. Interestingly in U.K. various elected officials from the Prime Minister downwards act as arms salesmen. Tony Blair during his visit to India spent almost half of his time in trying to convince Indians to buy British fighter jets. On one hand he was making speeches for exerting “Calming Influence” over the Indo-Pak Conflict on Kashmir while on the other hand, he and the British industrial military complex were trying to sell a lot of weapons to India. While international attention is focused on the need to control weapons of mass destruction, the trade in conventional weapons continues to operate in a legal and moral vacuum. These “Beneficiaries of Conflict” and “Merchants of Death” create vested interests in the potential markets to protect their massive stakes. Former defence officials and high ranking officers are recruited on huge salaries and commissions as liaison officers to promote their sales. They keep a number of hot spots in the world in a state of perennial conflict to ensure regular sales of their wares. Kashmir has been the proverbial golden goose for these arms traders. For almost half a century it has been providing them on continuous basis massive avenues for selling these lethal weapons to the two conflicting sides. It is quite possible that in the three major wars between India and Pakistan, the soldiers who died on the two sides may have been killed by the bullets and bombs manufactured and supplied by the same armament firms? Even now the same firms are supplying weapons as well as high altitude equipment to two sides in the Himalayan battleground of Siachin. Indians and Pakistanis are killing each other for rocks, ice and snow wearing the same parkas, mountain boots and using same snowmobiles! It is very strange that as soon as two sides near an agreement, some unseen hand throws a spanner in the works and they are back to square one. In view of the total dependence of these countries on the western powers, it would not be difficult for them to pressurise the two antagonists to come to an agreement if they meant it? However, they always try to gently “persuade” them to go for conflict resolution. In the heart of their hearts they feel that a solution of this conflict would be detrimental to their national interests as defined by their armament firms! The “Global Cop” did not hesitate in invading Iraq twice on flimsy grounds. Nor did it mind bombing Afghanistan to Stone Age. Here the physical intervention was necessary to capture and dominate the energy sources in the Middle East and the Central Asia. In addition, it gave armament firms opportunity to test all their new weapons in a real war. William Blum in his book, “Rogue State” mentions that US armament firms have been testing some of the biological and chemical weapons on their own nationals without their knowledge. Unfortunately, even some of the politicians on the two sides of the sub-continental divide have been making use of the conflict to capture or stay in power. In such a situation the resolution of this conflict seems a remote possibility. The various events projected for the solution appear to be acts in a play which are enacted from time to time to keep the public in good humour. It is a pity that the masses in general are not aware about the machinations of the global players. The people at large have no cause for conflict. They have rather common needs on both the sides. The only escape seems to be creation of general awareness about all the hidden aspects of the problem with their ramifications on the future of the poor masses of this sub-continent. The first step for that would be breaking of all the physical barriers to allow the grass roots people to meet and realise the truth. It is the people alone who can change the fate of this sub-continent. This is bound to happen sooner than later. The day that happens, it would sound a death knell for the “Beneficiaries of Conflict” and the “Merchants of Death”!