The military conflict between India and Pakistan expanded in the days after the first airstrikes that followed a deadly terrorist attack last month on the Indian-controlled side of the disputed Kashmir region.

       The confrontation was the latest escalation of a decades-long conflict over Kashmir, a scenic valley in the Himalayas that is wedged between the two nations. Kashmiris have rarely had a say in their own fate.

       Here is a history of the dispute.

       1947

       Fraught Beginnings

       Image

       Indian soldiers arriving in Srinagar, Kashmir, in November 1947 to fight Pakistani militias for control of the region. Credit...Bettmann

       Contention over Kashmir began nearly as soon as India and Pakistan were formed.

       In 1947, Britain divided India, its former colony, into two countries. One was Pakistan, with a Muslim majority. The other, made up mostly of Hindus, kept the name India. But Kashmir’s fate was left undecided.

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       Within months, both India and Pakistan had laid claim to the territory. A military confrontation ensued. The Hindu ruler of Kashmir, who had at first refused to abdicate his sovereignty, agreed to make the region part of India in exchange for a security guarantee, after militias from Pakistan moved into parts of his territory.

       What followed was the first war that India and Pakistan would fight over Kashmir.

       Years later, in 1961, the former ruler of Kashmir passed away in Bombay. In an obituary, The New York Times summarized his decision to cede the territory to India in words that would prove true for decades to come. His actions, the article said, had contributed to “a continuing bitter dispute between India and Pakistan.”

       afghanistan

       china

       Controlled

       by Pakistan

       boundary

       undefined

       line of

       control

       Pahalgam

       Controlled

       by India

       Militants killed 26 tourists on April 22

       pakistan

       Disputed area

       PAK.

       INDIA

       India

       china

       Controlled

       by Pakistan

       boundary

       undefined

       pakistan

       line of control

       Controlled

       by India

       Pahalgam

       Disputed

       area

       Militant attack

       on April 22

       PAK.

       INDIA

       India

       afghan.

       china

       Controlled

       by Pakistan

       boundary

       undefined

       pakistan

       line of control

       Controlled

       by India

       Pahalgam

       Militant attack

       on April 22

       Disputed

       area

       PAK.

       INDIA

       India

       china

       Controlled

       by Pakistan

       boundary

       undefined

       line of

       control

       pakistan

       Pahalgam

       Controlled

       by India

       Militants killed 26 tourists on April 22

       Disputed area

       PAK.

       India

       INDIA

       By The New York Times

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