ABSTRACT
The Vale of Kashmir around the capital, Srinagar, was overwhelmingly Muslim, while the Hindu majority was located around Jammu in the south-west. Almost since their independence from the UK in 1947, India and Pakistan have disputed the right to Kashmir. In 1947 the Congress Party and the Muslim League proved unable to agree on the terms for a draft constitution for an independent India. Hostilities were halted by a ceasefire in January 1949 and a line of control between the two countries was established in the Karachi Agreement. Conflict again erupted in 1964 and 1966 between India and Pakistan but, following the Tashkent Declaration, troops were withdrawn from the line of control. In late 1998, exchanges of fire began in the area of the Siachen Glacier and these continue. The Siachen Glacier has been described as the world's highest and most inhospitable battleground. Therefore, the Kashmir must be a continued low-level insurgency and it remains a key geopolitical flashpoint.
