The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and

Pakistan, with China playing a third-party role.[1][2] The conflict started after the partition of India in
1947 as both India and Pakistan claimed the entirety of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir
with Pakistan recognizing Chinese sovereignty over the Trans-Karakoram Tract and Aksai Chin since 1963.
[3] It is a dispute over the region that escalated into three wars between India and Pakistan and several
other armed skirmishes. India controls approximately 55% of the land area of the region that includes
Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, most of Ladakh, the Siachen Glacier[4] and 70% of its population, Pakistan
controls approximately 30% of the land area that includes Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan while China
controls the remaining 15% of the land area that includes the Aksai Chin region, the mostly uninhabited
Trans-Karakoram Tract, and part of the Demchok sector.[5][3][6][7][8][9][10][11] After the partition of
India and a rebellion in the western districts of the state, Pakistani tribal militias invaded Kashmir, leading
the Hindu ruler of Jammu and Kashmir to join India[12] and starting the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947
which ended with a UN-mediated ceasefire along a line that was eventually named the Line of Control.
[13][14] After further fighting in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the
Simla Agreement formally established the Line of Control between the two nations' controlled
territories.[15][16] In 1999, armed conflict between India and Pakistan broke out again in the Kargil War
over the Kargil district.[17]

Since 1989, Kashmiri protest movements were created to voice Kashmir's disputes and grievances with
the Indian government in the Indian-controlled Kashmir Valley,[18][19] with some Kashmiri separatists in
armed conflict with the Indian government based on the demand for self-determination.[20][21][22][18]
[19] The 2010s were marked by further unrest erupting within the Kashmir Valley. The 2010 Kashmir
unrest began after an alleged fake encounter between local youth and security forces.[23] Thousands of
youths pelted security forces with rocks, burned government offices, and attacked railway stations and
official vehicles in steadily intensifying violence.[24] The Indian government blamed separatists and
Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group, for stoking the 2010 protests.[25] The 2016 Kashmir
unrest erupted after killing of a Hizbul Mujahideen militant, Burhan Wani, by Indian security forces.[26]
Further unrest in the region erupted after the 2019 Pulwama attack.[27]

According to scholars, Indian forces have committed many human rights abuses and acts of terror
against Kashmiri civilian population including extrajudicial killing, rape, torture, and enforced
disappearances.[21][28][29] According to Amnesty International, no member of the Indian military
deployed in Jammu and Kashmir has been tried for human rights violations in a civilian court as of June
2015, although there have been military court martials held.[30] Amnesty International has also accused
the Indian government of refusing to prosecute perpetrators of abuses in the region.[31]

How old is this fight?

Even before India and Pakistan won their independence from Britain in August 1947, the area was hotly
contested.

Under the partition plan provided by the Indian Independence Act, Kashmir was free to accede to either
India or Pakistan.

The maharaja (local ruler), Hari Singh, initially wanted Kashmir to become independent - but in October
1947 chose to join India, in return for its help against an invasion of tribesmen from Pakistan.

A war erupted and India approached the United Nations asking it to intervene. The United Nations
recommended holding a plebiscite to settle the question of whether the state would join India or
Pakistan.before the referendum could be held.

In July 1949, India and Pakistan signed an agreement to establish a ceasefire line as recommended by
the UN and the region became divided

A second war followed in 1965. Then in 1999, India fought a brief but bitter conflict with Pakistani-
backed forces.

Today, Delhi and Islamabad both claim Kashmir in full, but control only parts of it - territories recognised
internationally as "Indian-administered Kashmir" and "Pakistan-administered Kashmir".

Why is there so much unrest in the Indian-administered part?

An armed revolt has been waged against Indian rule in the region for three decades, claiming tens of
thousands of lives.

India blames Pakistan for stirring the unrest by backing separatist militants in Kashmir - a charge its
neighbour denies.

Now a sudden change to Kashmir's status on the Indian side has created further apprehension.
Indian-administered Kashmir has held a special position within the country historically, thanks to Article
370 - a clause in the constitution which gave it significant autonomy, including its own constitution, a
separate flag, and independence over all matters except foreign affairs, defence and communications

Attempts at resolution and legitimization

Although there was a clear Muslim majority in Kashmir before the 1947 partition, and its economic,
cultural, and geographic contiguity with the Muslim-majority area of the Punjab could be convincingly
demonstrated, the political developments during and after the partition resulted in a division of the
region. Pakistan was left with territory that, although basically Muslim in character, was thinly populated,
relatively inaccessible, and economically underdeveloped. The largest Muslim group, situated in the Vale
of Kashmir and estimated to number more than half the population of the entire region, lay in Indian-
administered territory, with its former outlets via the Jhelum valley route blocked.

Kashmir, Vale of

Kashmir, Vale of

Vale of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Michael Petersen

Many proposals were subsequently made to end the dispute over Kashmir, but tensions mounted
between the two countries following the Chinese incursion into Ladakh in 1962, and warfare broke out
between India and Pakistan in 1965. A cease-fire was established in September, followed by an
agreement signed by the two sides at Tashkent (Uzbekistan) in early January 1966, in which they
resolved to try to end the dispute by peaceful means. Fighting again flared up between the two in 1971
as part of the India-Pakistan war that resulted in the creation of Bangladesh. An accord signed in the
Indian city of Shimla in 1972 expressed the hope that henceforth the countries in the region would be
able to live in peace with each other. It was widely believed that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, then prime minister
of Pakistan, might have tacitly accepted the line of control as the de facto border, although he later
denied this. After Bhutto was arrested in 1977 and executed in 1979, the Kashmir issue once again
became the leading cause of conflict between India and Pakistan.

To contend with these movements, confront Pakistani forces along the cease-fire line, and support the
administrative structure of Jammu and Kashmir state, the Indian union government has maintained a
strong military presence there, especially since the end of the 1980s.

Insurgency and counterinsurgency

Disillusioned with lack of progress through the democratic process, militant organizations began to pop
up in the region in the late 1980s. Their purpose was to resist control from the Indian union government.
By the early 1990s the militancy had evolved into an insurgency, and India engaged in a crackdown
campaign. The rigour of the fighting died down in the mid-1990s, though occasional violence continued
to take place.

kargil war

The Kargil area of western Ladakh has often been the site of border conflicts, including a serious incident
in 1999. In May of that year Pakistan intensified artillery shelling of the Kargil sector. Meanwhile, the
Indian army discovered that militants had infiltrated the Indian zone from the Pakistan side and had
established positions within and west of the Kargil area. Intense fighting ensued between the infiltrators
and the Indian army and lasted more than two months. The Indian army managed to reclaim most of the
area on the India side of the line of control that had been occupied by the infiltrators. Hostilities finally
ended when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan gave his assurance that the infiltrators would
retreat.

ceasefire and bus

shelling across the line of control continued intermittently into the early 21st century, until a cease-fire
agreement was reached in 2004. Tensions in the region subsequently diminished, and India and Pakistan
sought more cordial relations in general and greater regional cooperation. Limited passenger bus service
began in 2005 between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad on either side of the frontier, and, after the
devastating earthquake in the region later that year, India and Pakistan allowed survivors and trucks
carrying relief supplies to cross at several points along the line of control. In addition, in 2008 both
countries opened cross-border trade links through the Kashmir region for the first time since the 1947
partition; trucks carrying locally produced goods and manufactures began operating between Srinagar
and Muzaffarabad and between Rawalkot, Pakistan, and Punch, India.

cold blooded killling of villagers

Despite these advances, tensions have continued to erupt periodically in the region. Prolonged violent
protests flared up over control of a piece of land used by Hindu pilgrims visiting the Amarnath cave
shrine east of Srinagar in 2008 and again in 2010 after Indian soldiers killed three Pakistani villagers who
they claimed were militants trying to infiltrate across the line of control. A subsequent investigation
revealed that the soldiers had in fact lured the men to the area and murdered them in cold blood.

BJJP

Another cycle of unrest began after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept elections
across India in 2014. The party had won an outright majority in the national legislature and began
pushing policies nationwide to promote hindutva (“Hindu-ness”). The BJP, which strongly favoured the
union of Kashmir with India, had become the second largest party in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative
Assembly and formed a unity government with the slightly larger People’s Democratic Party (PDP),
whose platform centred on the implementation of self-rule in Kashmir. As the hindutva and pro-India
policies of the BJP stoked the anxieties of the region’s predominantly Muslim population, Kashmir saw an
uptick in unrest. The growing tensions erupted into rioting in July 2016 after the commander of an
Islamic militant group was killed in an operation by Indian security forces. India’s union government,
dominated by the BJP, began asserting increased control over the state as a matter of national security
and launched a crackdown on militants. In late 2018 the union government dissolved the government of
Jammu and Kashmir and began direct rule of the state after the BJP left the state’s unity coalition and
caused its collapse.

- as the governing party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had promised in its 2019 election manifesto.
The Hindu nationalist BJP has long opposed Article 370 and had repeatedly called for its abolishment.

Telephone networks and the internet were cut off in the region in the days before the presidential order
was announced. Public gatherings were banned, and tens of thousands of troops were sent in. Tourists
were told to leave Kashmir under warnings of a terror threat.

One of them, Mehbooba Mufti, said the move would "make India an occupational force in Jammu and
Kashmir," and that "today marks the darkest day in Indian democracy".

Pakistan fiercely condemned the development, branding it "illegal" and vowing to "exercise all
possible options" against it.

It downgraded diplomatic ties with India and suspended all trade. India responded by saying they
"regretted" Pakistan's statement and reiterating that Article 370 was an internal matter as it did not
interfere with the boundaries of the territory.

Within Kashmir, opinions about the territory's rightful allegiance are diverse and strongly held. Many do
not want it to be governed by India, preferring either independence or union with Pakistan instead.

Ms Mufti told the BBC: "They just want to occupy our land and want to make this Muslim-majority state
like any other state and reduce us to a minority and disempower us totally."

pulwama attack and pakistanKashmir experienced its greatest friction in decades in February 2019. On
February 14 a suicide bomber associated with a militant separatist group killed 40 members of India’s
Central Reserve Police Force, the deadliest attack on Indian security forces in three decades. With a
tough election cycle approaching, India’s BJP-led government faced pressure from its supporters to take
forceful action. Days later India sent fighter jets across Kashmir’s line of control for the first time in five
decades and later claimed to have conducted air strikes against the militant group’s largest training
camp. Pakistan denied the claim, saying that the jets had struck an empty field. The next day, Pakistan
shot down two Indian jets in its airspace and captured a pilot. Yet, despite the aggravation, many
analysts believed that both India and Pakistan intended to avoid escalation. In the aftermath, Pakistan
implemented a crackdown on militants in its country, issuing arrests, closing a large number of religious
schools, and promising to update its existing laws. A few months later the BJP won a landslide victory in
India’s elections, expanding its representation in the parliament’s lower chamber.

pulwama attack and paksitan reaction

Kashmir experienced its greatest friction in decades in February 2019. On February 14 a suicide bomber
associated with a militant separatist group killed 40 members of India’s Central Reserve Police Force, the
deadliest attack on Indian security forces in three decades. With a tough election cycle approaching,
India’s BJP-led government faced pressure from its supporters to take forceful action. Days later India
sent fighter jets across Kashmir’s line of control for the first time in five decades and later claimed to
have conducted air strikes against the militant group’s largest training camp. Pakistan denied the claim,
saying that the jets had struck an empty field. The next day, Pakistan shot down two Indian jets in its
airspace and captured a pilot. Yet, despite the aggravation, many analysts believed that both India and
Pakistan intended to avoid escalation. In the aftermath, Pakistan implemented a crackdown on militants
in its country, issuing arrests, closing a large number of religious schools, and promising to update its
existing laws. A few months later the BJP won a landslide victory in India’s elections, expanding its
representation in the parliament’s lower chamber.

Are we back to square one?

The bloody summer of street protests in Indian-administered Kashmir in 2016 had already dimmed
hopes for a lasting peace in the region.

Then, in June 2018, the state government there was upended when Mr Modi's BJP pulled out of a
coalition government run by Ms Mufti's People's Democratic Party.

Jammu and Kashmir was since under direct rule from Delhi, which fuelled further anger.

The deaths of more than 40 Indian soldiers in a suicide attack on 14 February, 2019 have ended any hope
of a thaw in the immediate future. India blamed Pakistan-based militant groups for the violence - the
deadliest targeting Indian soldiers in Kashmir since the insurgency began three decades ago.

Following the bombing, India said it would take "all possible diplomatic steps" to isolate Pakistan from
the international community.

On 26 February, it launched air strikes in Pakistani territory which it said targeted militant bases.

Pakistan shows off disputed air strike site

Pakistan's dilemma over anti-India militants

Pakistan denied the raids had caused major damage or casualties but promised to respond, fuelling fears
of confrontation. A day later it said it had shot down two Indian Air Force jets in its airspace, and
captured a fighter pilot - who was later returned unharmed to India

Chinese interests

China had never accepted the British-negotiated boundary agreements in northeastern Kashmir. This
remained the case following the communist takeover in China in 1949, although the new government
did ask India—without success—to open negotiations regarding the border. After Chinese authority was
established in Tibet and reasserted in Xinjiang, Chinese forces penetrated into the northeastern parts of
Ladakh. This was done mainly because it allowed them to build a military road through the Aksai Chin
plateau area (completed in 1956–57) to provide better communication between Xinjiang and western
Tibet; it also gave the Chinese control of passes in the region between India and Tibet. India’s belated
discovery of this road led to border clashes between the two countries that culminated in the Sino-
Indian war of October 1962. China has occupied the northeastern part of Ladakh since the conflict. India
refused to negotiate with China on the alignment of the Ladakhi boundary in this area, and the incident
contributed significantly to a diplomatic rift between the two countries that began to heal only in the
late 1980s. In the following decades, China worked to improve its relations with India, but there has
been no resolution to the disputed Ladakh frontier.

Human rights abuses

Human rights abuses have been committed by Indian forces in Kashmir. Militants have also committed
crimes.[29][neutrality is disputed] Crimes by state forces are done inside Kashmir Valley which is the
location of the present conflict.[441]

The 2010 Chatham House opinion poll of the people of Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir found
that overall concern, in the entire state, over human rights abuses was 43%.[442] In the surveyed
districts of the Muslim majority Kashmir Valley, where the desire for Independence is strongest,[443]
there was a high rate of concern over human rights abuses. (88% in Baramulla, 87% in Srinagar, 73% in
Anantnag and 55% in Badgam).[442] However, in the Hindu and Buddhist majority areas of the state,
where pro-India sentiment is extremely strong,[443] concern over human rights abuses was low (only 3%
in Jammu expressed concerns over human rights abuses)

According to Hon. Edolphus Towns of the American House of Representatives, around 90,000 Kashmiri
Muslims have been killed by the Indian government since 1988.[444] Human Rights Watch says armed
militant organizations in Kashmir have also targeted civilians, although not to the same extent as the
Indian security forces.[445] Since 1989, over 50,000 people are claimed to have died during the conflict.
[446] Data released in 2011 by Jammu and Kashmir government stated that, in the last 21 years, 43,460
people have been killed in the Kashmir insurgency. Of these, 21,323 are militants, 13,226 civilians killed
by militants, 3,642 civilians killed by security forces, and 5,369 policemen killed by militants, according to
the Jammu and Kashmir government data.[447] Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society says there
have been 70,000 plus killings, a majority committed by the Indian armed forces.[448]

Pakistan administered Kashmir

Azad Kashmir

Main article: Human rights abuses in Azad Kashmir

The 2010 Chatham House opinion poll of Azad Kashmir's people found that overall concerns about
human rights abuses in 'Azad Kashmir' was 19%.[442] The district where concern over human rights
abuses was greatest was Bhimber where 32% of people expressed concern over human rights abuses.
[442] The lowest was in the district of Sudanhoti where concern over human rights abuses was a mere
5%.[442]

Claims of religious discrimination and restrictions on religious freedom in Azad Kashmir have been made
against Pakistan.[508] The country is also accused of systemic suppression of free speech and
demonstrations against the government.[508] UNHCR reported that a number of Islamist militant
groups, including al-Qaeda, operate from bases in Pakistani-administered Kashmir with the tacit
permission of ISI[507][508] There have also been several allegations of human rights abuse.[507]