Kashmir conflict

The Jammu and Kashmir conflict (Hindi: कश्मीर विवाद, Urdu: مسئلہ کشمیر) is a dispute over the territory of Kashmir. The dispute is between India, Pakistan and China. India claims all of the region that was once a princely state which it considers it's territory. It currently controls about 43% of the territory, including most of Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, Ladakh, and the Siachen Glacier. India's claims are disputed by Pakistan, which controls about 45% of Jammu and Kashmir, including Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Pakistan says there should be a referendum in Kashmir on whether the people want to join India or Pakistan, or become independent.

UN map of Kashmir

History

The conflict started during the Partition of India (1947–48). On October 20, 1947, tribesmen backed by Pakistan invaded Kashmir. The Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir initially fought back but on 27 October appealed for assistance to the Governor-General Louis Mountbatten, who agreed on the condition that the ruler accede to India and that a plebiscite would be held afterwards, which was not. Once the papers of accession to India were signed, Indian soldiers entered Kashmir with orders to stop any further occupation, but they were not allowed to remove anyone from the state. India took the matter to the United Nations. The UN resolution asked Pakistan to vacate the areas it has occupied and asked India to assist the U.N. Plebiscite Commission to organize a plebiscite to determine the will of the people. Pakistan refused to vacate the occupied areas.

In 1947-8 India and Pakistan fought their first war over Jammu and Kashmir. Under United Nations' supervision, they agreed to a ceasefire along a line which left one-third of the state - comprising what Pakistan calls Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and the Northern Areas administered by Pakistan and two-thirds, Jammu, Ladakh and the Kashmir Valley, controlled by India. In 1972, under the terms of the Simla agreement, the ceasefire line was renamed the Line of Control.

Although India claims that the entire state is part of India, it has been prepared to accept the Line of Control as the international border, with some possible modifications. Both the US and the UK have also favoured turning the Line of Control into an internationally-recognised frontier.

But Pakistan has consistently refused to accept the Line of Control as the border since the predominantly Muslim Kashmir Valley would remain as part of India. Formalising the status quo also does not take account of the aspirations of those Kashmiris who have been fighting since 1989 for independence for the whole or part of the state.

Water dispute

Another reason behind the dispute over Kashmir is water. Many rivers start in Kashmir. Some of them are tributaries of the Indus River basin, such as the Jhelum and Chenab River. These flow into Pakistan and are used for irrigation there. Other rivers like the Ravi, Beas River and the Sutlej flow into northern India.

One of the origins of the conflict is that with the Boundary Award of 1947, many of the Pakistani irrigation systems can be controlled from India. Pakistan has been afraid that India could stop the flow of rivers that start in Indian-controlled Kashmir and flow into Pakistan. This would harm the agrarian economy of Pakistan. The Indus Waters Treaty signed in 1960 resolved most of these disputes over the sharing of water.

Current status

Today Kashmir is split, as follows:

• Republic of India controls the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is made of the Jammu region, the Kashmir valley, and Ladakh. Pakistan refers to this as Indian occupied kashmir or Indian controlled kashmir, or Indian annexed kashmir and Indian held kashmir.
• The territories known as Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir are administered by Pakistan. Islamabad calls them Pakistan-administered Kashmir. India refers to this as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
• The region called Aksai Chin is controlled by China. China also controls a territory it received from Pakistan, called Trans-Karakoram Tract. The legality of this swap is disputed by India.
• The Siachen Glacier is currently a disputed territory, India controls the glacier, Pakistan the valley below.
• The Trans-Karakoram Tract is an area Pakistan gave to China in 1963, March 3rd. Pakistan says the area was uninhabited, so there is no problem to this. India claims this area as part of its state Jammu and Kashmir.

Kashmir has been a source of conflict between India and Pakistan for more than 60 years. Currently a boundary - the Line of Control - divides the region in two, with one part occupied by India and one militarily administrated by Pakistan. India would like to formalise this status quo and make it the accepted international boundary. But Pakistan and Kashmiri activists reject this plan because they both want greater control over the region.

Map issues

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  Map of UN's version of the South Asia region
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  Map of UN's version of Pakistan
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  Map of UN's version of the Kashmir region

As with other disputed territories, each government issues maps depicting their claims in Kashmir as part of their territory, regardless of actual control. It is illegal in India to exclude all or part of Kashmir in a map. It is also illegal in Pakistan not to include the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Non-participants often use the Line of Control and the Line of Actual Control as the depicted boundaries, as is done in the CIA World Factbook, and the region is often marked out in hashmarks, although the Indian government strictly opposes such practices. When Microsoft released a map in Windows 95 and MapPoint 2002, a controversy was raised because it did not show parts of Kashmir as part of India as per Indian claim. However, all the neutral companies claim to follow the UN's map and over 90% of all maps containing the territory of Kashmir show it as disputed territory.

International responses

Governments	Policy statement's
UN:	The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on the map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. Dotted line represents approximately the Line of Control of Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon by the Republic of India and the Government of Pakistan since 1972. Both the parties have not yet agreed upon the final status of the region and nothing significant has been implemented since the peace process began in 2004. See UN map of Jammu and Kashmir, accepted by most countries of the world
Islamabad:	The Government of Pakistan maintains un-provisionally and unconditionally that the validity of the "Accession of Jammu and Kashmir" remains to be decided by UN plebiscite. It accepts the UN's map of the territory. It also states that the designations and the presentation on the Kashmir regional map based on UN practice do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Commonwealth Secretariat or the publishers concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. There is no intention to define the Legal status of Jammu and Kashmir, which has not yet been agreed upon by the parties. It further says that boundaries must be based on the religious, cultural, racial, historical, and geographical orientations of the people and not by politics. However it claims that this is not an endorsement of territorial claims by either side in the dispute.
New Delhi:	The Government of India states that "the external artificial boundaries of the Republic of India, especially concerning the international borders under its jurisdiction created by a foreign body are neither correct nor authenticated".
Beijing:	The government of the People's Republic Of China maintains its control over what is known as the Chinese Kashmir, but the region is also claimed by the Republic of India; China states that Aksai Chin is a part of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in China. China did not accept the boundaries of the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu, north of the Aksai Chin and the Karakoram that were proposed by the British. China settled its own border disputes with Pakistan in the Trans-Karakoram Tract in 1963 with the provision that the settlement was subject to the final solution of the Kashmir dispute. Pakistan also agreed that this is a part of China, but the exact future border between them has not been agreed upon as terming it as boundary undefined or frontier undemarcated.