India and Pakistan: a history of armed conflict

India and Pakistan: a history of armed conflict
by AFP Staff Writers
New Delhi (AFP) May 7, 2025

India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery along their contested frontier in Kashmir on Wednesday in a major escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

The latest crisis erupted after New Delhi launched missile strikes on its arch-rival, with deaths subsequently reported on both sides.

New Delhi accuses Pakistan of backing the deadliest attack in years on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, in which 26 men were killed.

Islamabad rejects the charge.

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 mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

The poorly prepared partition unleashes bloodshed that kills possibly more than a million people and displaces 15 million others.

Kashmir's monarch dithers on whether to submit to Indian or Pakistani rule.

After the suppression of an uprising against his rule, Pakistan-backed militants attack. He seeks India's help, precipitating an all-out war between the countries.

A UN-backed, 770-kilometre (480-mile) ceasefire line in January 1949 divides Kashmir.

- 1965: Kashmir -

Pakistan launches a second war in August 1965 when it invades India-administered Kashmir.

Thousands are killed before a September ceasefire brokered by the Soviet Union and the United States.

- 1971: Bangladesh -

Pakistan deploys 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 are killed in the nine-month conflict and millions flee into India.

India invades, leading to the creation of the independent nation of Bangladesh.

- 1989-90: Kashmir -

An uprising breaks out in Kashmir in 1989 as grievances at Indian rule boil over. Tens of thousands of soldiers, rebels and civilians are killed in the following decades.

India accuses Pakistan of funding the rebels and aiding their weapons training.

- 1999: Kargil -

Pakistan-backed militants seize Indian military posts in the icy heights of the Kargil mountains.

Pakistan yields 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 are killed over 10 weeks.

- 2019: Kashmir -

A suicide attack on a convoy of Indian security forces kills 40 in Pulwama.

India, which is busy with campaigning for general elections, sends fighter jets which carry out air strikes on Pakistani territory to target an alleged militant training camp.

One Indian jet is shot down over Pakistani-controlled territory, with the captured pilot safely released within days back to India.