Latest news with #DalLake
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
‘Attack on people's memory': Kashmir's book ban sparks new censorship fears
Srinagar, India-administered Kashmir – Hafsa Kanjwal's book on Kashmir has just been banned, but it's the irony of the moment that strikes her the most. This week, authorities in India-administered Kashmir proscribed 25 books authored by acclaimed scholars, writers and journalists. The banned books include Kanjwal's Colonizing Kashmir: State‑Building under Indian Occupation. But even as the ban was followed by police raids on several bookstores in the region's biggest city, Srinagar, during which they seized books on the blacklist, Indian officials are holding a book festival in the city on the banks of Dal Lake. 'Nothing is surprising about this ban, which comes at a moment when the level of censorship and surveillance in Kashmir since 2019 has reached absurd heights,' Kanjwal told Al Jazeera, referring to India's crackdown on the region since it revoked Kashmir's semiautonomous status six years ago. 'It is, of course, even more absurd that this ban comes at a time when the Indian army is simultaneously promoting book reading and literature through a state-sponsored Chinar Book Festival.' Yet even with Kashmir's long history of facing censorship, the book bans represent to many critics a particularly sweeping attempt by New Delhi to assert control over academia in the disputed region. 'Misguiding youth' The 25 books banned by the government offer a detailed overview of the events surrounding the Partition of India and the reasons why Kashmir became such an intransigent territorial dispute to begin with. They include writings like Azadi by Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, Human Rights Violations in Kashmir by Piotr Balcerowicz and Agnieszka Kuszewska, Kashmiris' Fight for Freedom by Mohd Yusaf Saraf, Kashmir Politics and Plebiscite by Abdul Gockhami Jabbar and Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora? by Essar Batool. These are books that directly speak to rights abuses and massacres in Kashmir and promises broken by the Indian state. Then there are books like Kanjwal's, journalist Anuradha Bhasin's A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir After Article 370 and legal scholar AG Noorani's The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012, which dissect the region's political journey over the decades. The government has blamed these books for allegedly 'misguiding youth' in Kashmir and instigating their 'participation in violence and terrorism'. The government's order states: 'This literature would deeply impact the psyche of youth by promoting a culture of grievance, victimhood, and terrorist heroism.' The dispute in Kashmir dates back to 1947 when the departing British cleaved the Indian subcontinent into the two dominions of India and Pakistan. Muslim-majority Kashmir's Hindu king sought to be independent of both, but after Pakistan-backed fighters entered a part of the region, he agreed to join India on the condition that Kashmir enjoy a special status within the new union with some autonomy guaranteed under the Indian Constitution. But the Kashmiri people were never asked what they wanted, and India repeatedly rebuffed demands for a United Nations-sponsored plebiscite. Discontent against Indian rule simmered on and off and exploded into an armed uprising against India in 1989 in response to allegations of election fixing. Kanjwal's Colonizing Kashmir sheds light on the complicated ways in which the Indian government under its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, consolidated its control over Kashmir. Some of Nehru's decisions that have come under criticism include the unceremonious dismissal of the region's leader Sheikh Abdullah, who advocated for self-rule for Kashmir, and the decision to replace him with his lieutenant, Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad, whose 10 years in office were marked by the strengthening of New Delhi's rule of Indian-administered Kashmir. Kanjwal's book won this year's Bernard Cohn Book Prize, which 'recognizes outstanding and innovative scholarship for a first single-authored English-language monograph on South Asia'. Kanjwal said the ban gives a sense of how 'insecure' the government is. 'Intensification of political clampdown' India has a long history of censorship and information control in Kashmir. In 2010, after major protests broke out following the killing of 17-year-old student Tufail Mattoo by security forces, the provincial government banned SMS services and restored them only three years later. At the height of another civil uprising in 2016, the government stopped Kashmir Reader, an independent publication in Srinagar, from going to press, citing its purported 'tendency to incite violence'. Aside from prohibitions on newspapers and modes of communication, Indian authorities have routinely detained journalists under stringent preventive detention laws in Kashmir. That pattern has picked up since 2019. 'First they came for journalists, and realising they were successful in silencing them, they have turned their attention to academia,' said veteran editor Anuradha Bhasin, whose book on India's revocation of Kashmir's special status in 2019 is among those banned. Bhasin described the accusations that her book promotes violence as strange. 'Nowhere does my book glorify terrorism, but it does criticise the state. There's a distinction between the two that authorities in Kashmir want to blur. That's a very dangerous trend.' Bhasin told Al Jazeera that such bans will have far-reaching implications for future works being produced on Kashmir. 'Publishers will think twice before printing anything critical on Kashmir,' she said. 'When my book went to print, the legal team vetted it thrice.' 'A feeling of despair' The book bans have drawn criticism from various quarters in Kashmir with students and researchers calling it an attempt to impose collective amnesia. Sabir Rashid, a 27-year-old independent scholar from Kashmir, said he was very disappointed. 'If we take these books out of Kashmir's literary canon, we are left with nothing,' he said. Rashid is working on a book on Kashmir's modern history concerning the period surrounding the Partition of India. 'If these works are no longer available to me, my research is naturally going to be lopsided.' On Thursday, videos showed uniformed policemen entering bookstores in Srinagar and asking their proprietors if they possessed any of the books in the banned list. At least one book vendor in Srinagar told Al Jazeera he had a single copy of Bhasin's Dismantled State, which he sold just before the raids. 'Except that one, I did not have any of these books,' he shrugged. More acclaimed works on the blacklist Historian Sumantra Bose is aghast at the suggestion by Indian authorities that his book Kashmir at the Crossroads has fuelled violence in the region. He has worked on the Kashmir dispute since 1993 and said he has focused on devising pathways for finding a lasting peace for the region. Bose is also amused at a family legacy represented by the ban. In 1935, the colonial authorities in British India banned The Indian Struggle, 1920-1934, a compendium of political analysis authored by Subhas Chandra Bose, his great-uncle and a leader of India's freedom struggle. 'Ninety years later, I have been accorded the singular honour of following in the legendary freedom fighter's footsteps,' he said. As police step up raids on bookshops in Srinagar and seize valuable, more critical works, the literary community in Kashmir has a feeling of despondency. 'This is an attack on the people's memory,' Rashid said. 'These books served as sentinels. They were supposed to remind us of our history. But now, the erasure of memory in Kashmir is nearly complete.'
New York Times
10-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Live Updates: Trump Announces Truce Between India and Pakistan
A shikara, or water taxi, on Dal Lake in Kashmir in 1950. India and Pakistan have vied for control of the scenic Himalayan valley for decades. The military conflict between India and Pakistan expanded in the days after the first airstrikes that followed a deadly terrorist attack last month on the Indian-controlled side of the disputed Kashmir region. The confrontation was the latest escalation of a decades-long conflict over Kashmir, a scenic valley in the Himalayas that is wedged between the two nations. Kashmiris have rarely had a say in their own fate. Here is a history of the dispute. 1947 Fraught Beginnings Image Indian soldiers arriving in Srinagar, Kashmir, in November 1947 to fight Pakistani militias for control of the region. Credit... Bettmann Contention over Kashmir began nearly as soon as India and Pakistan were formed. In 1947, Britain divided India, its former colony, into two countries. One was Pakistan, with a Muslim majority. The other, made up mostly of Hindus, kept the name India. But Kashmir's fate was left undecided. Within months, both India and Pakistan had laid claim to the territory. A military confrontation ensued. The Hindu ruler of Kashmir, who had at first refused to abdicate his sovereignty, agreed to make the region part of India in exchange for a security guarantee, after militias from Pakistan moved into parts of his territory. What followed was the first war that India and Pakistan would fight over Kashmir. Years later, in 1961, the former ruler of Kashmir passed away in Bombay. In an obituary, The New York Times summarized his decision to cede the territory to India in words that would prove true for decades to come. His actions, the article said, had contributed to 'a continuing bitter dispute between India and Pakistan.' 1949 A Tenuous Cease-Fire afghanistan china Controlled by Pakistan boundary undefined line of control Pahalgam Controlled by India Militants killed 26 tourists on April 22 pakistan Disputed area PAK. INDIA India china Controlled by Pakistan boundary undefined pakistan line of control Controlled by India Pahalgam Disputed area Militant attack on April 22 PAK. INDIA India afghan. china Controlled by Pakistan boundary undefined pakistan line of control Controlled by India Pahalgam Militant attack on April 22 Disputed area PAK. INDIA India china Controlled by Pakistan boundary undefined line of control pakistan Pahalgam Controlled by India Militants killed 26 tourists on April 22 Disputed area PAK. India INDIA In January 1949, the first war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir concluded after the United Nations intervened to broker a cease-fire. Under the terms of the cease-fire, a line was drawn dividing the territory. India would occupy about two-thirds of the area, and Pakistan the other third. The dividing line was supposed to be temporary, pending a more permanent political settlement. 1965 War Breaks Out Again Image A picture dated Aug. 12, 1965, shows an Indian artillery team during the second war that India and Pakistan fought over Kashmir. Credit... Panasia-Files, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Tensions were already high between India and Pakistan in the summer of 1965. There had been a skirmish between their forces along the border earlier in the year, in an area south of Kashmir. When Pakistan conducted a covert offensive across Kashmir's cease-fire line in August, the fighting quickly escalated into a full-scale war. The clash was short-lived — only about three weeks long — but bloody. In January 1966, India and Pakistan signed an agreement to settle future disputes through peaceful means. But the peace would not last. 1972 An Official Division Image President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan, center, shaking hands with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India in June 1972 after they agreed to establish the 'line of control' in Kashmir. To Mr. Bhutto's left is his daughter Benazir Bhutto, who would become Pakistan's prime minister years later. Credit... Punjab Press, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images After a regional war in 1971 that led to the creation of Bangladesh, Pakistan and India decided to revisit the unsolved issue of Kashmir. In December 1972, the countries announced that they had resolved the deadlock over Kashmir's cease-fire line. But little changed besides the designation. The temporary cease-fire line from 1949 became an official 'line of control.' Each country retained the section of Kashmir that it had already held for more than 20 years. While the agreement did little to change the status quo in Kashmir, it came with an aspiration to improve the volatile relationship between India and Pakistan. Reporting on the deal from New Delhi, a Times correspondent wrote of the two countries: 'Official sources here indicated that they were satisfied with the settlement, which they said had been reached 'in an atmosphere of goodwill and mutual understanding.'' 1987 The Rise of Insurgency Image Indian police officers taking position after Kashmiri militants opened fire on government forces in Srinagar in 1989. Credit... Habib Naqash/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images During a period of particular political turmoil — aggravated in 1987 by disputes over local elections that many thought were rigged — some Kashmiris turned to militancy, which Pakistan would eventually stoke and support. Over the next decade or so, state police in Kashmir recorded tens of thousands of bombings, shootouts, abductions and rocket attacks. That violence began to moderate around the 2000s, but the years of intense insurgency had further eroded the fragile relationship between Pakistan and India. 1999 Peace Talks Come Up Short Image War raged over Kashmir between India and Pakistan in 1999, just months after the countries agreed to pursue a more lasting peace. Credit... Aijaz Rahi/Associated Press As a new millennium neared, India and Pakistan seemed poised to establish a more permanent peace. In a gesture of goodwill, Pakistan's prime minister hosted his Indian counterpart for a weekend of jocular diplomacy in February 1999. No Indian prime minister had visited Pakistan in a decade. The summit — between the leaders of adversaries that each now had nuclear arms — produced signed documents affirming their mutual commitment to normalizing relations. 'We must bring peace to our people,' Pakistan's prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, said at a news conference, as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India smiled at his side. 'We must bring prosperity to our people. We owe this to ourselves and to future generations.' Three months later, their countries were at war. Again, Kashmir was the point of discord. Fighting broke out after infiltrators from Pakistan seized positions within the Indian-administered part of Kashmir. India claimed that the infiltrators were Pakistani soldiers, which Western analysts would also come to believe. Pakistan denied that its forces were involved, insisting that independent freedom fighters were behind the operation. The war ended when Mr. Sharif called for the infiltrators to withdraw (he maintained all along that they were not Pakistani forces and that Pakistan did not control them). A few months later, Mr. Sharif was deposed in a military coup led by a Pakistani general who, it was later determined, had directed the military incursion that started the war. 2019 India Cracks Down Image Protesters throwing stones in Srinagar in August 2019, days after India stripped Kashmir of its partial autonomy. Credit... Atul Loke for The New York Times After the war in 1999, Kashmir remained one of the world's most militarized zones. Near-constant unrest in the territory brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war several times in the years that followed. The last major flare-up was in 2019, when a bombing in Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian soldiers. Indian warplanes conducted airstrikes in Pakistan in retaliation, but the conflict de-escalated before becoming an all-out war. A more lasting move came later that year, when the Indian government stripped Kashmir of a cherished status. For all of Kashmir's modern history — since its Hindu ruler acceded to India — the territory had enjoyed a degree of autonomy. Its relative independence was enshrined in India's Constitution. But in August 2019, India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, rolled back Kashmir's privileged status. The crackdown came with a quick succession of draconian measures: Thousands of Indian troops surged into the territory. Internet connections were severed. Phone lines were cut. Mr. Modi's government began directly administering the territory from New Delhi, and it imprisoned thousands of Kashmiris, including political leaders who had long sided with India in the face of separatist militancy. The government's heavy-handed approach stunned observers around the world. But the results, as far as India was concerned, justified the means. A new era of peace seemed to ensue. Acts of terrorism declined. Tourism flourished. It was an illusion. 2025 A Terrorist Attack Image Indian security officers near Pahalgam, in southern Kashmir, after gunmen attacked Indian tourists there on April 22. Credit... Dar Yasin/Associated Press On April 22, militants shot and killed 26 people, mostly tourists from different parts of India, near Pahalgam, Kashmir. Seventeen others were wounded. It was one of the worst terror attacks on Indian civilians in decades. Almost immediately afterward, Indian officials suggested that Pakistan had been involved. Mr. Modi, the prime minister, vowed severe punishment for the attackers and those giving them safe haven, though he did not explicitly mention Pakistan. Pakistan swiftly denied involvement and said it was 'ready to cooperate' with any international inquiry into the terrorist attack. But India was not placated. Its retaliatory move came on Wednesday. India said it struck sites in Pakistan and on Pakistan's side of Kashmir, after it accused Pakistan of being involved in the April attack. Pakistan denied those claims and vowed to retaliate, and witnesses and Indian officials said that at least two Indian jets had crashed. The clashes on Friday escalated into the two archrivals' most expansive military conflict in decades. India said that Pakistan had launched attacks using drones and other weapons along its entire western border, while Pakistan rejected those claims. Shelling and gunfire was exchanged on both sides of the disputed border, blacking out towns and killing civilians. Mujib Mashal , Salman Masood and John Yoon contributed reporting.
New York Times
10-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Live Updates: Trump Says U.S. Brokered Truce Between India and Pakistan
A shikara, or water taxi, on Dal Lake in Kashmir in 1950. India and Pakistan have vied for control of the scenic Himalayan valley for decades. The military conflict between India and Pakistan expanded in the days after the first airstrikes that followed a deadly terrorist attack last month on the Indian-controlled side of the disputed Kashmir region. The confrontation was the latest escalation of a decades-long conflict over Kashmir, a scenic valley in the Himalayas that is wedged between the two nations. Kashmiris have rarely had a say in their own fate. Here is a history of the dispute. 1947 Fraught Beginnings Image Indian soldiers arriving in Srinagar, Kashmir, in November 1947 to fight Pakistani militias for control of the region. Credit... Bettmann Contention over Kashmir began nearly as soon as India and Pakistan were formed. In 1947, Britain divided India, its former colony, into two countries. One was Pakistan, with a Muslim majority. The other, made up mostly of Hindus, kept the name India. But Kashmir's fate was left undecided. Within months, both India and Pakistan had laid claim to the territory. A military confrontation ensued. The Hindu ruler of Kashmir, who had at first refused to abdicate his sovereignty, agreed to make the region part of India in exchange for a security guarantee, after militias from Pakistan moved into parts of his territory. What followed was the first war that India and Pakistan would fight over Kashmir. Years later, in 1961, the former ruler of Kashmir passed away in Bombay. In an obituary, The New York Times summarized his decision to cede the territory to India in words that would prove true for decades to come. His actions, the article said, had contributed to 'a continuing bitter dispute between India and Pakistan.' 1949 A Tenuous Cease-Fire afghanistan china Controlled by Pakistan boundary undefined line of control Pahalgam Controlled by India Militants killed 26 tourists on April 22 pakistan Disputed area PAK. INDIA India china Controlled by Pakistan boundary undefined pakistan line of control Controlled by India Pahalgam Disputed area Militant attack on April 22 PAK. INDIA India afghan. china Controlled by Pakistan boundary undefined pakistan line of control Controlled by India Pahalgam Militant attack on April 22 Disputed area PAK. INDIA India china Controlled by Pakistan boundary undefined line of control pakistan Pahalgam Controlled by India Militants killed 26 tourists on April 22 Disputed area PAK. India INDIA In January 1949, the first war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir concluded after the United Nations intervened to broker a cease-fire. Under the terms of the cease-fire, a line was drawn dividing the territory. India would occupy about two-thirds of the area, and Pakistan the other third. The dividing line was supposed to be temporary, pending a more permanent political settlement. 1965 War Breaks Out Again Image A picture dated Aug. 12, 1965, shows an Indian artillery team during the second war that India and Pakistan fought over Kashmir. Credit... Panasia-Files, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Tensions were already high between India and Pakistan in the summer of 1965. There had been a skirmish between their forces along the border earlier in the year, in an area south of Kashmir. When Pakistan conducted a covert offensive across Kashmir's cease-fire line in August, the fighting quickly escalated into a full-scale war. The clash was short-lived — only about three weeks long — but bloody. In January 1966, India and Pakistan signed an agreement to settle future disputes through peaceful means. But the peace would not last. 1972 An Official Division Image President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan, center, shaking hands with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India in June 1972 after they agreed to establish the 'line of control' in Kashmir. To Mr. Bhutto's left is his daughter Benazir Bhutto, who would become Pakistan's prime minister years later. Credit... Punjab Press, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images After a regional war in 1971 that led to the creation of Bangladesh, Pakistan and India decided to revisit the unsolved issue of Kashmir. In December 1972, the countries announced that they had resolved the deadlock over Kashmir's cease-fire line. But little changed besides the designation. The temporary cease-fire line from 1949 became an official 'line of control.' Each country retained the section of Kashmir that it had already held for more than 20 years. While the agreement did little to change the status quo in Kashmir, it came with an aspiration to improve the volatile relationship between India and Pakistan. Reporting on the deal from New Delhi, a Times correspondent wrote of the two countries: 'Official sources here indicated that they were satisfied with the settlement, which they said had been reached 'in an atmosphere of goodwill and mutual understanding.'' 1987 The Rise of Insurgency Image Indian police officers taking position after Kashmiri militants opened fire on government forces in Srinagar in 1989. Credit... Habib Naqash/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images During a period of particular political turmoil — aggravated in 1987 by disputes over local elections that many thought were rigged — some Kashmiris turned to militancy, which Pakistan would eventually stoke and support. Over the next decade or so, state police in Kashmir recorded tens of thousands of bombings, shootouts, abductions and rocket attacks. That violence began to moderate around the 2000s, but the years of intense insurgency had further eroded the fragile relationship between Pakistan and India. 1999 Peace Talks Come Up Short Image War raged over Kashmir between India and Pakistan in 1999, just months after the countries agreed to pursue a more lasting peace. Credit... Aijaz Rahi/Associated Press As a new millennium neared, India and Pakistan seemed poised to establish a more permanent peace. In a gesture of goodwill, Pakistan's prime minister hosted his Indian counterpart for a weekend of jocular diplomacy in February 1999. No Indian prime minister had visited Pakistan in a decade. The summit — between the leaders of adversaries that each now had nuclear arms — produced signed documents affirming their mutual commitment to normalizing relations. 'We must bring peace to our people,' Pakistan's prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, said at a news conference, as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India smiled at his side. 'We must bring prosperity to our people. We owe this to ourselves and to future generations.' Three months later, their countries were at war. Again, Kashmir was the point of discord. Fighting broke out after infiltrators from Pakistan seized positions within the Indian-administered part of Kashmir. India claimed that the infiltrators were Pakistani soldiers, which Western analysts would also come to believe. Pakistan denied that its forces were involved, insisting that independent freedom fighters were behind the operation. The war ended when Mr. Sharif called for the infiltrators to withdraw (he maintained all along that they were not Pakistani forces and that Pakistan did not control them). A few months later, Mr. Sharif was deposed in a military coup led by a Pakistani general who, it was later determined, had directed the military incursion that started the war. 2019 India Cracks Down Image Protesters throwing stones in Srinagar in August 2019, days after India stripped Kashmir of its partial autonomy. Credit... Atul Loke for The New York Times After the war in 1999, Kashmir remained one of the world's most militarized zones. Near-constant unrest in the territory brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war several times in the years that followed. The last major flare-up was in 2019, when a bombing in Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian soldiers. Indian warplanes conducted airstrikes in Pakistan in retaliation, but the conflict de-escalated before becoming an all-out war. A more lasting move came later that year, when the Indian government stripped Kashmir of a cherished status. For all of Kashmir's modern history — since its Hindu ruler acceded to India — the territory had enjoyed a degree of autonomy. Its relative independence was enshrined in India's Constitution. But in August 2019, India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, rolled back Kashmir's privileged status. The crackdown came with a quick succession of draconian measures: Thousands of Indian troops surged into the territory. Internet connections were severed. Phone lines were cut. Mr. Modi's government began directly administering the territory from New Delhi, and it imprisoned thousands of Kashmiris, including political leaders who had long sided with India in the face of separatist militancy. The government's heavy-handed approach stunned observers around the world. But the results, as far as India was concerned, justified the means. A new era of peace seemed to ensue. Acts of terrorism declined. Tourism flourished. It was an illusion. 2025 A Terrorist Attack Image Indian security officers near Pahalgam, in southern Kashmir, after gunmen attacked Indian tourists there on April 22. Credit... Dar Yasin/Associated Press On April 22, militants shot and killed 26 people, mostly tourists from different parts of India, near Pahalgam, Kashmir. Seventeen others were wounded. It was one of the worst terror attacks on Indian civilians in decades. Almost immediately afterward, Indian officials suggested that Pakistan had been involved. Mr. Modi, the prime minister, vowed severe punishment for the attackers and those giving them safe haven, though he did not explicitly mention Pakistan. Pakistan swiftly denied involvement and said it was 'ready to cooperate' with any international inquiry into the terrorist attack. But India was not placated. Its retaliatory move came on Wednesday. India said it struck sites in Pakistan and on Pakistan's side of Kashmir, after it accused Pakistan of being involved in the April attack. Pakistan denied those claims and vowed to retaliate, and witnesses and Indian officials said that at least two Indian jets had crashed. The clashes on Friday escalated into the two archrivals' most expansive military conflict in decades. India said that Pakistan had launched attacks using drones and other weapons along its entire western border, while Pakistan rejected those claims. Shelling and gunfire was exchanged on both sides of the disputed border, blacking out towns and killing civilians. Mujib Mashal , Salman Masood and John Yoon contributed reporting.
RNZ News
07-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
India and Pakistan: a history of armed conflict
Indian security forces patrol a road near Dal Lake in Srinagar, India, on 6 May. Increased military presence follows the 22 April attack on tourists in Pahalgam, amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan. Photo: AFP/BASIT ZARGAR Long-running tensions between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan soared on Wednesday after New Delhi launched deadly strikes at Pakistani territory. The missiles killed at least eight people, according to Pakistan, which said it had begun retaliating in a major escalation between the South Asian neighbours. India accuses Pakistan of backing the deadliest attack in years on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir on 22 April, in which 26 men were killed. Islamabad has rejected the charge. Both countries have since exchanged gunfire in Kashmir, expelled citizens and ordered the border shut. Since the April attack soldiers on each side have fired across the Line of Control, the de facto border in contested Kashmir, a heavily fortified zone of Himalayan outposts. The two sides have fought multiple conflicts - ranging from skirmishes to all-out war - since their bloody partition in 1947. Two centuries of British rule ends on August 15, 1947, with the sub-continent divided into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. The poorly prepared partition unleashes bloodshed that kills possibly more than a million people and displaces 15 million others. Kashmir's monarch dithers on whether to submit to Indian or Pakistani rule. After the suppression of an uprising against his rule, Pakistan-backed militants attack. He seeks India's help, precipitating an all-out war between the countries. A UN-backed, 770-kilometre (480-mile) ceasefire line in January 1949 divides Kashmir. Pakistan launches a second war in August 1965 when it invades India-administered Kashmir. Thousands are killed before a September ceasefire brokered by the Soviet Union and the United States. Pakistan deploys troops in 1971 to suppress an independence movement in what is now Bangladesh, which it had governed since 1947 as East Pakistan. An estimated three million people are killed in the nine-month conflict and millions flee into India. India invades, leading to the creation of the independent nation of Bangladesh. An uprising breaks out in Kashmir in 1989 as grievances at Indian rule boil over. Tens of thousands of soldiers, rebels and civilians are killed in the following decades. India accuses Pakistan of funding the rebels and aiding their weapons training. Pakistan-backed militants seize Indian military posts in the icy heights of the Kargil mountains. Pakistan yields after severe pressure from Washington, alarmed by intelligence reports showing Islamabad had deployed part of its nuclear arsenal nearer to the conflict. At least 1,000 people are killed over 10 weeks. A suicide attack on a convoy of Indian security forces kills 40 in Pulwama. India, which is busy with campaigning for general elections, sends fighter jets which carry out air strikes on Pakistani territory to target an alleged militant training camp. One Indian jet is shot down over Pakistani-controlled territory, with the captured pilot safely released within days back to India. - AFP
