The territorial dispute between India and Pakistan

* The

Kashmir conflict is a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region, the northwestern region of South Asia. claims the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir and as of 2010, administers approximately 43% of the region, including most of Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, Ladakh, and the Siachen Glacier. India's claims are contested by Pakistan, which controls approximately 37% of Kashmir, namely Azad Kashmir and the northern areas of Gilgit and Baltistan.

* India

* India and Pakistan have fought at least three wars over Kashmir,

including the Indo-Pakistani Wars of 1947, 1965 and 1999. India and Pakistan have also been involved in several skirmishes over the Siachen Glacier.

* In 1947, British rule in India ended with the creation of two new

nations: the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, while British suzerainty over the 562 Indian princely states ended. According to the Indian Independence Act 1947, the suzerainty of His Majesty over the Indian States lapses. the states were left to choose whether to join India or Pakistan or to remain independent. Jammu and Kashmir, the largest of the princely states, had a predominantly Muslim population, while having a Hindu ruler (Maharaja Hari Singh). On partition, Pakistan expected Kashmir to be annexed to it.

* So

* In

October 1947, Muslim revolutionaries in western Kashmir and Pakistani tribals from Dir entered Kashmir, intending to liberate it from Dogra rule. Unable to withstand the invasion, the Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession on 25 October 1947 that was accepted by the government of India on 27 October 1947. Maharaja desperately needed military assistance and India argued that the Maharaja must complete negotiations for ceding Jammu and Kashmir to India in exchange for receiving military aid.

* The

* The resulting war over Kashmir, the First Kashmir War, lasted until 1948,
when India moved the issue to the UN Security Council.

* The

resolution imposed an immediate cease-fire and called on the Government of Pakistan to secure the withdrawal from the state of Jammu and Kashmir of tribesmen and Pakistani nationals who have entered the state for the purpose of fighting.
also asked Government of India to reduce its forces to the minimum strength, after which the circumstances for holding a plebiscite should be put into effect 'on the question of Accession of the state to India or Pakistan.

* However,

both India and Pakistan failed to arrive at a Truce agreement. The Indian and Pakistani governments agreed to hold the plebiscite, but Pakistan did not withdraw its troops from Kashmir, thus violating the conditions for holding the plebiscite.

* It

* In

* In

1962, troops from the People's Republic of China and India clashed in territory claimed by both. China won a swift victory in the war, resulting in the Chinese annexation of the region called Aksai Chin, which has continued since then. Another smaller area, the TransKarakoram, was demarcated as the Line of Control (LOC) between China and Pakistan, although some of the territory on the Chinese side is claimed by India to be part of Kashmir. The line that separates India from China in this region is known as the "Line of Actual Control".

1965 and 1971, heavy fighting broke out again between India and Pakistan. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 resulted in the defeat of Pakistan and the Pakistani military's surrender in East Pakistan, leading to the creation of Bangladesh. The Simla Agreement was signed in 1972 between India and Pakistan. By this treaty, both countries agreed to settle all issues by peaceful means using mutual discussion in the framework of the UN Charter.

* In

1989, a widespread popular and armed insurgency started in Kashmir. After the 1987 State legislative assembly election, some of the results were disputed. This resulted in the formation of militant wings after the election and was the beginning of the Mujahadeen insurgency, which continues to this day.
Yasin Malik, a leader of one faction of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, was one of the Kashmiris to organize militancy in Kashmir, along with Ashfaq Majid Wani and Farooq Ahmad Dar (alias Bitta Karatay). Since 1995, Malik has renounced the use of violence and calls for strictly peaceful methods to resolve the dispute. He developed differences with one of the senior leaders, Farooq Siddiqui (alias Farooq Papa), for shunning the demand for an independent Kashmir and trying to cut a deal with the Indian Prime Minister. This resulted in a spilt. claims these insurgents are Islamic terrorist groups from Pakistanadministered Kashmir and Afghanistan, fighting to make Jammu and Kashmir, a part of Pakistan. They claim Pakistan is supplying munitions to the terrorists and training them in Pakistan. The Pakistani government calls these insurgents "Kashmiri freedom fighters"

* India

* While

on a trip to Delhi in 2002, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld suggested that Al-Qaeda was active in Kashmir, though he did not have any hard evidence. A journalistic investigation by a Christian Science Monitor reporter in 2002 claimed to have unearthed evidence that Al-Qaeda and its affiliates were prospering in Pakistan-administered Kashmir with tacit approval of Pakistan's National Intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence. A team of Special Air Service and Delta Force was sent into Indian-administered Kashmir in 2002 to hunt for Osama bin Laden after reports that he was being sheltered by the Kashmiri militant group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. U.S. officials believed that Al-Qaeda was helping organize a campaign of terror in Kashmir in order to provoke conflict between India and Pakistan.

* In 2006 Al-Qaeda claim they have established a wing in Kashmir; this worried the
Indian government. While on a visit to Pakistan in January 2010, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, stated that Al-Qaeda was seeking to destabilize the region and planning to provoke a nuclear war between India and Pakistan.

* Harkat-ul-Mujahideen-

al-Islami (abbreviated HUM) is a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group operating primarily in Kashmir. In 1997, the United States designated Harakat al-Ansar a foreign terrorist organization for links to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda and in response the organization changed its name to Harkatul-Mujahideen. The group splintered from Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), a Pakistani group formed in 1980 to fight the Soviet military in Afghanistan. It is also believed that the organization has retained close ties with the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI. 1989, at the end of Soviet-Afghan war, the group entered Kashmiri politics by use of militants under the leadership of Sajjad Afghani. In 1993 the group merged with Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami to form Harkat-ul-Ansar.

* In

* Immediately

following the merger India arrested three senior members: Nasrullah Mansur Langaryal, chief of the former Harkat-ul Mujahideen in November 1993; Maulana Masood Azhar, General Secretary in February 1994, and Sajjad Afghani (Sajjad Sajid) in the same month in Srinagar.
a response, the group carried out several kidnappings in an attempt to free their leaders, all of which failed. Linked to the Kashmiri group al-Faran that kidnapped five Western tourists in Kashmir in July 1995; one, Hans Christian Ostr, was killed in August 1995 and the other four reportedly were killed in December of the same year.

* As

* Lashkar-e-Taiba is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist

organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.

* It

was founded in 1990 by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam and Zafar Iqbal in Afghanistan. With its headquarters based in Muridke, near Lahore in Punjab province of Pakistan, the group operates several training camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

* Its main goals is the integration of Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan
after ending Indian rule in the state and propagation of pan-Islamism in South Asia.

* Lashkar-e-Taiba

has attacked civilian and military targets in India, most notably the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The organization is banned as a terrorist organization by India, Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Russia and Australia. Some experts believe that Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), continues to give LeT intelligence help and protection.

Jaish-e-Mohammed is a major jihadi organization based in Kashmir. The group's primary motive is to separate Kashmir from India and it has carried out several attacks primarily in Indianadministered Kashmir. It has been banned in Pakistan since 2002, yet continues to operate several facilities in the country. According to B. Raman, Jaish-e-Mohammed is viewed as the "deadliest" and "the principal terrorist organization in Jammu and Kashmir". The group is regarded as a terrorist organization by several countries, including India, United States and United Kingdom. In March 2000, Masood Azhar formed Jaish-e-Mohammed from a split within Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) shortly after his December 1999 release from prison in exchange of Passengers of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 which was hijacked and was taken to Kandahar. A majority of members left HUM and followed Azhar into the newly founded group. In January 2002, the government of President Pervez Musharraf banned the group. In response JeM changed its name to Khaddam ulIslam. The group, in coordination with Lashkar-e-Tayiba, has been implicated in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack in New Delhi. It has been suspected in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi. An informant, posing as a member of Jaish-e-Mohammed, helped police to arrest four people allegedly plotting to bomb a New York City synagogue as well as to shoot Stinger missiles at military aircraft in the United States. The arrest of the four took place in May 2009. On December 9, 2009, five Muslim Americans, who knew each other from the ICNA Center in Arlington, Virginia, were detained in Pakistan during a police raid. The men had met with Jaish-eMuhammed in Pakistan and offered their assistance in jihadi attacks.

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