India-Pakistan tensions: A history of war, conflict between South Asian neighbours

Khaleej Times

23-05-2025

Long-running tensions between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan soared 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 disputed Kashmir on April 22, 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.
1947: Partition
Two centuries of British rule ends on August 15, 1947, with the sub-continent divided into India and Pakistan.
The poorly prepared partition unleashed bloodshed that killed possibly more than a million people and displaced 15 million others.
Kashmir's monarch dithered on whether to submit to Indian or Pakistani rule.
After the suppression of an uprising against his rule, Pakistan-backed militants attack. He sought India's help, precipitating an all-out war between the countries.
A UN-backed, 770-kilometre (480-mile) ceasefire line in January 1949 divided Kashmir.
1965: Kashmir
Pakistan launched a second war in August 1965 when it invaded contested Kashmir.
Thousands were killed before a September ceasefire brokered by the Soviet Union and the United States.
1971: Bangladesh
Pakistan deployed 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 were killed in the nine-month conflict and millions fled into India. The conflict led to the creation of the independent nation of Bangladesh.
1989-90: Kashmir
An uprising broke out in Kashmir in 1989 as grievances at Indian rule boiled over. Tens of thousands of soldiers, rebels and civilians were killed in the following decades.
India accused Pakistan of funding the rebels and aiding their weapons training.
1999: Kargil
Pakistan-backed militants seized Indian military posts in the icy heights of the Kargil mountains.
Pakistan yielded 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 were killed over 10 weeks.
2019: Kashmir
A suicide attack on a convoy of Indian security forces kills 40 in Pulwama.
India sent fighter jets which carried out air strikes on Pakistani territory to target an alleged militant training camp.