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A short history of KashmirCompiled from Times wires© St. Petersburg Times published June 1, 2002 Kashmir is an area in the northern part of India and the northeastern part of Pakistan. It is split between the two countries. Ninety-seven percent of Pakistanis are Muslim; 81.3 percent of Indians are Hindu. Kashmir is 64 percent Muslim and 37 percent Hindu. Kashmir was an autonomous part of British India, ruled by a prince, but in 1947, British India was partitioned into two independent countries, India and Pakistan. Kashmir's leader, a Hindu, chose to join mostly Hindu India rather than Muslim Pakistan. Ever since, Pakistan has argued that U.N. resolutions call for a Kashmiri vote to decide between India and Pakistan. Fighting broke out in and around the disputed region. A U.N. cease-fire in January 1949 stopped the fighting, but Kashmir was split between Pakistan and India along a cease-fire line monitored by U.N. observers. In 1957, Jammu and Kashmir was declared a part of India under a new state constitution. India regards the region as a territory. As a result of a war in 1962, China gained control of a portion of Buddhist-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan accepts Chinese control over this area but India does not. In 1965, clashes between Indian and Pakistani border patrols escalated into a second war over Kashmir. Both sides retreated to their original positions. The third war between India and Pakistan broke out in 1971 over East Pakistan (Bangladesh), which wanted to break away from Pakistan. India backed the independence movement. A truce produced an agreement to respect the cease-fire line in Kashmir, renamed the Line of Control, but no final agreement on borders. Over the decades, there have been attacks across the Line of Control by both Indian and Pakistani troops.
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