Author: VINDU GOEL / Source: New York Times
Two nuclear-armed siblings with a long history of armed conflict. Two prime ministers facing public pressure for military action. And a snowy, mountainous region that both nations have coveted — and occupied with troops — for more than 70 years.
It was almost inevitable that fighting would break out again between India and Pakistan.
On Wednesday, Pakistani and Indian fighter jets engaged in a skirmish over Indian-controlled territory in the disputed border state of Jammu and Kashmir. At least one Indian jet was shot down, with Pakistan capturing its pilot.
By Scott Reinhard
The incursion came just one day after Indian aircraft flew into Pakistan and attacked near the town of Balakot. The Indian government claimed it was striking a training camp for Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terrorist group that was responsible for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing in southern Kashmir that killed at least 40 paramilitary forces. Pakistan has insisted it had no involvement in the suicide attack.
Now there are fears that hostilities could escalate between the two countries, which were created by the bloody partition of British India more than 70 years ago and have co-existed uneasily ever since.
What are the roots of the conflict?
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, on the country’s first day as a nation. Lord Louis Mountbatten, left, had overseen the partition of the subcontinent. Associated Press
When the British finally gave up their colony of India in August 1947, they agreed to divide it into two countries: Pakistan, with a Muslim majority, and India, with a Hindu majority.
(Bangladesh was initially part of Pakistan but gained its own independence in 1971 after a short war between India and Pakistan.)The sudden separation prompted millions of people to migrate between the two countries and led to religious violence that killed hundreds of thousands.
Left undecided was the status of Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority state in the Himalayas that had been ruled by a local prince. Fighting quickly broke out, and both countries eventually sent in troops, with Pakistan occupying one-third of the state and India two-thirds.
The village of Gujran, in the upper section of Tulail Valley, Kashmir. Michael Benanav for The New York Times
Although the prince signed an agreement for the territory to become part of India, the United Nations later recommended that an election be held to let the people decide.
That election never took place, and…
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