Why are India and Pakistan on the verge of war? Here is what the fights in cashmere are for.

New Delhi – A Mortal terrorist attack In the picturesque region of Pahalgam, a picturesque cashmere in April, brought India and Pakistan war edge. The armed nuclear neighbors of South Asia attacked this week with missiles and drones in a sudden push of a quarrel old decades which is observed with concern by leaders of the whole world.

The bitter rivals have fought three wars on cashmere in the past, and once again, they warn each other against any movement that could degenerate tension – and promising to respond in kind to such movements with difficult military action.

After a week of intense clashes, the sirens of the air raids made a splash in a few Indian cities near the Pakistani border on Friday and the authorities asked people to stay inside. The officials said that a woman had been killed and four men injured in an alleged Pakistani cross -border fire in the Cashmir city of Uri, while all the major airports and the capital of Delhi were on high alert, certain closed schools and the large monuments evacuated.

Pakistani officials accused India of having killed at least 36 people this week, including 26, he died in a missile attack on Tuesday evening on several locations, which Islamabad described “act of war“India described the strikes a measured response to the April terrorist attack, saying that it had killed 100 terrorists in the camps and other sites in Pakistan and the cashmere administered in Pakistan.

The rivalry between the two countries dates back decades and, in the heart of the dispute, is the superb mountainous region of cashmere.

The cashmere conflict explained

Cashmere is a Himalayan region dotted with snowy mountains, virgin lakes and beautiful meadows. It was previously one of the many “princely states” of India, governed by the so-called Maharajas, before India was independent of British domination in August 1947.

This independence, however, has never been a simple question. By giving in its colonial power, Great Britain divided India into two nations: the Hindu India-Majerity and Pakistan with a Muslim majority.

The migration of the Hindus of Pakistan newly sculpted in India and Muslims from India in Pakistan was marred by generalized massacres and sectarian violence. It is largely considered to be the deadliest partitioning of a nation in contemporary history.

At the time of the partition, cashmere was a princely Muslim majority state and its Maharaja Hari Singh Hindu, chose to remain independent of the two newly defined nations. But in October 1947, when the members of the Pakistan tribe invaded cashmere, the Maharaja asked for help from India.

India has agreed to help it, but only if Singh lets India claim domination over cashmere as a prerequisite. Maharaja accepted.

India sent its army to cashmere, which has driven the Pakistani tribes and, for all useful purposes, cashmere has become a semi-autonomous part of India.

The wars of India and Pakistan on cashmere

Pakistan has refused to recognize the support of cashmere towards India, rejecting it as fraud. The favoss led the two nations in their First War the same year, and it lasted in 1948.

India has asked the United Nations to intervene. The UN recommended that after the complete demilitarization of the region by the two armies, a vote be held by the residents of the cashmere to determine its future.

This has never been done and, in 1949, India and Pakistan signed a cease-fire agreement which divided the cashmere highly disputed in two parts.

The two nations all claim cashmere as their own territory, but each controls only a part. Another northeast part of the region is administered by China, which has long been a point of friction between Delhi and Beijing.

In 1965, tension on the region between India and Pakistan again broke out in a large -scale war. Thousands of people were killed on both sides. About seven years later, an agreement was signed which officially established a control line (loc) dividing the cashmere, which still serves as a de facto border between the two rivals.

In 1989, a strongly armed pro-independence insurrection took root in the cashmere administered by the Indians, launching deadly attacks against the Indian forces. India has long accused Pakistan of training, arming and supporting these activists – a charge in Pakistan categorically denies.

The three -decades insurrection made tens of thousands of deaths.

Pakistan has always denied allegations that it supports the Kashmirian separatists.

In 1999, the two countries were again engaged in a brief war, fought along the loc in northern Kashmir.

They almost returned to war after deadly terror attack on the commercial capital of India Mumbai In 2008, which was carried out by a militant group based in cashmere administered by Pakistan – with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, Indian authorities claimThe full support of the Pakistani security forces.

India removed the autonomy of cashmere in 2019

While the insurrection continued, India has maintained a strong military presence in cashmere, which makes it one of the most militarized areas in the world. Indian forces have killed hundreds of separatists each year in regular shootings across and around the loc, but they failed to stop the attacks by activists.

In 2016, armed men who, according to India, were based in Pakistan, killed 19 Indian soldiers during an attack on the city of Uri. India responded by launching what it called “surgical strikes” through the loc, targeting alleged militant bases. Pakistan has denied any Indian strike on its territory.

In 2019, Another attack blamed for the so -called Pakistani armed men, an Indian military convoy in the Cashmire Pulwama region, killed more than 40 paramilitary forces.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, furious at the attack, ordered air strikes Against Pakistan, triggering reprisal raids and an air fight in which an Indian fighter has been shot.

Later that year, the federal government of India, under Modi, The special cashmere status revokedLifting the partial autonomy of which it had enjoyed since 1947, which granted the region its own constitution and its main decision -making powers.

The government of Modi has faced criticism for the way it revoked the autonomy of cashmere. One day before his government has tabled and adopted the bill in Parliament, Indian forces launched a major repression in cashmere. Internet, television and telephone lines have been closed and civilians were ordered to stay inside. Dozens of people, including local politicians, were placed under house arrest while India has stolen more paramilitary forces in the region to maintain a safety and information lock. Some of these restrictions have remained in place for more than two years.

Pakistan opposed the decision and promised to “exercise all the possible options to counter the illegal stages”.

During the following years, when India continued to strengthen its security presence in the region, activism has declined and tourism returned to cashmere. The Modi government has taken credit for the transformation of the region of a Hotspot for terrorism into a hotspot for tourism.

But the terrorist attack last month against Indian tourists in Pahalgam has changed everything. He has once again put the two nations on a warpath – and the world on the risk of another major conflict broke out in the already tumultuous period, and between two nations with a long story of animosity and nuclear weapons.