Brief history of hostilities between India and Pakistan

New Delhi : Pakistan was created on August 14, 1947 by partitioning British India into two - with Pakistan having East and West Pakistan, and the rest remained with India. Since the partition in 1947, India and Pakistan have been involved in four wars. The war of 1971 saw the vivisection of Pakistan, with East Pakistan declaring itself Bangladesh. Since then, Pakistan has been trying time and again to avenge its defeat in the 1971 war, either through direct aggression in Kargil or through a ‘thousand cuts' proxy war in the Kashmir valley.Pakistani army has been training Kashmiri militants and other terrorists to carry out mayhem in the valley and across Indian cities, the latest being the attack on Indian Parliament and the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai. Each time, Pakistan had been denying its role saying these were the activity of non-state actors, yet the fact remains that from Multan to Bahawalpur to Muzaffarabad, there are sprawling terrorist camps being run by Lashkar-e-Toiba (now named Jamaat-ud-Dawah) where Pakistani armymen train these terrorists.The most recent attack was the brutal mutilation of two Indian army jawans by Pakistani troops in the Mendhar sector of Jammu & Kashmir on 8 January 2013.Here we present a summary of war and conflicts between India and Pakistan:War of 1947The war started in October 1947 when it was feared by Pakistan that Maharaja of the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu might accede to India. Tribal forces trained by Pakistan attacked and occupied a large part of the princely state, resulting in Maharajah fleeing Srinagar and signing the accession of the princely state to India. The infiltrators almost reached Srinagar, but for the airlifting of Indian soldiers, who repulsed their attacks, and the valley was saved from intruders. The war ended in December 1948 with the Line of Control dividing Kashmir into territories administered by Pakistan (northern and western areas) and India (southern, central and northeastern areas). Pakistan has given away most of the northern areas to China.War of 1965The five-week war caused thousands of casualties on both sides and was witness to the largest tank battle in military history since World War II. The war started following Pak President Ayub Khan's ambitious Operation Gibraltar, which was designed to infiltrate forces into Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency against India. The trigger was the attack in Kutch, Gujarat, which soon became a full-fledged war in which the Indian troops almost reached Lahore. A ceasefire was brokered by the then Soviet Union, and both troops had to retreat to another ceasefire line.War of 1971In 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was then the popular Awami League leader in East Pakistan, won the parliamentary elections, but the Pak army led by Gen Yahya Khan denied him power and threw him into jail. What followed was a bloody massacre of several lakhs Bengalis by Pak troops in March, 1971 inviting worldwide condemnation. Nearly one crore refugees from East Pakistan took refuge in India. India openly helped the Mukti Bahini leading to the 14 days' war in December 1971, at the end of which Indian forces occupied Dhaka, and 94,000 Pakistani soldiers led by Lt Gen A A K Niazi surrendered to Indian army. On the western front, a ceasefire took place, and in 1972, Pak Prime Minister Z A Bhutto signed the Simla Agreement with the then Indian PM Indira Gandhi paving the way for return of all Pak prisoners of war and promised to resolve Kashmir issue through bilateral talks. Kargil War of 1999Bhutto's promise was soon broken. Pakistan began to help separatist Khalistanis in Punjab, and later the militants in Kashmir. All with the intention of taking revenge for the drubbing it got in Bangladesh. In May, 1999, soldiers of Pakistan's Northern Light Infantry infiltrated and occupied several key heights in Drass and Kargil, leading to the Kargil war. During the war, both armies did not cross the Line of Control, but the Pakistani army continued to provide supplies to their troops dressed as militants. Indian troops fought bravely and reoccupied the heights, and after increasing pressure from the US, Pakistan was forced to withdraw its forces back across the LoC. Siachen conflictIn 1984, India launched Operation Meghdoot capturing most of the Siachen Glacier. Further clashes erupted in the glacial area in 1985, 1987 and 1995 as Pakistan sought, without success, to oust India from its stronghold. The Siachen heights are key to the Karakoram highway.Operation BrasstacksConducted by India between November 1986 and March 1987, and Pakistani mobilisation in response, the war exercises raised tensions and fears that it could lead to another war between the two neighbours.Sir CreekThe dispute lies in the interpretation of the maritime boundary line between Kutch and Sindh. Before India's independence, the provincial region was a part of Bombay Presidency of British India. After India's independence in 1947, Sindh became a part of Pakistan while Kutch remained a part of India. 2001–2002 India-Pak standoff The terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001 by terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, prompted the 2001–2002 India-Pakistan standoff and brought both sides close to war.Atlantique IncidentPakistan Navy's Naval Air Arm Breguet Atlantique patrol plane, carrying 16 people on board, was shot down by the Indian Air Force for alleged violation of airspace. The incident took place in the Rann of Kutch on 10 August 1999, just a month after the Kargil War, creating a tense atmosphere between India and Pakistan. 2008 Mumbai attacksFollowing ten coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India's largest commerical city, tensions heightened between the two countries. 187 people were killed in the 26/11 attacks. The probe established that ten terrorists belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba and they were trained by the Pakistan army. India has been giving evidences and dossiers, and a judicial commission from Pakistan visited India to meet the witnesses. The mastermind of the attacks LeT chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed is openly moving around in Lahore. The 2011 India–Pak LoC shooting The incident took place between 30 August and 1 September 2011 across the Line of Control in Kupwara District/Neelam Valley, resulting in one Indian soldier and three Pakistani soldiers being killed. Both countries gave different accounts of the incident, each accusing the other of initiating the hostilities.2013 Pak troops mutilated bodies of two Indian jawansOn 8 January 2013 Pakistani Army took advantage of the thick fog and killed two jawans and beheaded one of them in the Mendhar sector of Jammu & Kashmir. India has demanded that the head of Lance Naik Hemraj of Rajputana Rifles be returned immediately. Pakistan denies its troops carried out these barbaric killings.