India struck multiple sites inside Pakistani-controlled territory early on Wednesday, two weeks after a deadly attack on tourists in the disputed Kashmir plunged relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours to new lows.India accused Pakistan of backing the massacre, in which 26 men, mostly Indian Hindus, were killed, a charge Pakistan denies.Soldiers on each side have since exchanged fire along their de facto border, with each blaming the other for shooting first.Both countries have in the past two weeks expelled diplomats and citizens, ordered the border shut and closed their airspace for each other.India and Pakistan have a complex and largely hostile relationship that is rooted in a multitude of historical and political events, most notably the partition of British India in August 1947.Two years after World War II, the United Kingdom formally dissolved British India, dividing it into two new sovereign nations: the Union of India and Pakistan. The partitioning of the former British colony resulted in the displacement of up to 15 million people, with the death toll estimated to have reached between several hundred thousand and one million people as Hindus and Muslims migrated in opposite directions across the Radcliffe Line to reach India and Pakistan, respectively.In 1950, India emerged as a secular republic with a Hindu-majority population and a large Muslim minority.
Shortly afterwards, in 1956, Pakistan emerged as an Islamic republic with a Muslim-majority population and a large Hindu minority; it later lost most of its Hindu population following its defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, which saw the secession of East Pakistan as the independent country of Bangladesh.Since 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three major wars and one undeclared war, and have also engaged in numerous armed skirmishes and military standoffs; the Kashmir conflict has served as the catalyst for every war between the two states, with the exception of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which instead occurred alongside the Bangladesh Liberation War.Here : s a look at multiple conflicts between the two countries since their bloody partition in 1947.1947 — Months after British India is partitioned into a predominantly Hindu India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan, the two young nations fight their first war over control of Muslim-majority Kashmir, then a kingdom ruled by a Hindu monarch.
The war killed thousands before ending in 1948.1949 — A UN-brokered ceasefire line leaves Kashmir divided between India and Pakistan, with the promise of a UN-sponsored vote that would enable the region : s people to decide whether to be part of Pakistan or India.
That vote has never been held.1965 — The rivals fight their second war over Kashmir.
Thousands are killed in inconclusive fighting before a ceasefire is brokered by the Soviet Union and the United States.
Negotiations in Tashkent ran until January 1966, ending in both sides giving back territories they seized during the war and withdrawing their armies.A Pakistani soldier aims his rifle as a fellow soldier runs for cover during Indian shelling of Pakistani positions in East Pakistan on December 2, 1971.
(AP)1971 — India intervenes in a war over the independence of East Pakistan, which ends with the territory breaking away as the new country of Bangladesh.
An estimated three million people were killed in the conflict.1972 — India and Pakistan sign a peace accord, renaming the ceasefire line in Kashmir as the Line of Control.
Both sides deploy more troops along the frontier, turning it into a heavily fortified stretch of military outposts.Indian troops are on the move in Kashmir against guerrilla forces during the second war over Kashmir on September 6, 1965.
(AP)1989 — Kashmiri dissidents, with support from Pakistan, launch a bloody rebellion against Indian rule.
Indian troops respond with brutal measures, intensifying diplomatic and military skirmishes between New Delhi and Islamabad.1999 — Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri fighters seize several Himalayan peaks on the Indian side.
India responds with aerial bombardments and artillery.
At least 1,000 combatants are killed over 10 weeks, and a worried world fears the fighting could escalate to nuclear conflict.
The US eventually steps in to mediate, ending the fighting.2016 — Militants sneak into an army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing at least 18 soldiers.
India responds by sending special forces inside Pakistani-held territory, later claiming to have killed multiple suspected rebels in : surgical strikes.
: Pakistan denies that the strikes took place, but it leads to days of major border skirmishes.
Combatants and civilians on both sides are killed.2019 — The two sides again come close to war after a Kashmiri insurgent rams an explosive-laden car into a bus carrying Indian soldiers, killing 40.
India carries out airstrikes in Pakistani territory and claims to have struck a militant training facility.
Pakistan later shoots down an Indian warplane and captures a pilot.
He is later released, de-escalating tensions.2025 — Militants attack Indian tourists in the region : s resort town of Pahalgam and kill 26 men, most of them Hindus.
India blames Pakistan, which denies it. India vows revenge on the attackers as tensions rise to their highest point since 2019.
Both countries cancel visas for each other : s citizens, recall diplomats, shut their only land border crossing and close their airspaces to each other.
New Delhi also suspends a crucial water-sharing treaty.The post Looking back at India and Pakistan : s history of armed conflict as they face a new crisis first appeared on TINS News | Afghanistan News.