India versus Pakistan: A history of conflict

1947

The first war breaks out over Kashmir after partition divides the subcontinent into India and Pakistan. The maharaja of Kashmir, the local ruler, accedes to India as tribal fighters from Pakistan launch attacks

1965

India and Pakistan fight a second brief war over Kashmir before a ceasefire is declared

1971

India and Pakistan fight another war, not over Kashmir but over Islamabad’s rule in then East Pakistan, with New Delhi supporting Bengali nationalists seeking independence for what would become Bangladesh

1999

Pakistan-backed militants cross the Kashmir border, seizing Indian military posts in the icy heights of the Kargil mountains. Indian troops push the intruders back, ending the 10-week Kargil conflict which costs 1,000 lives on both sides

2016

Six gunmen attack an Indian air force base in the northern town of Pathankot, killing seven soldiers in a battle that lasted nearly four days. Suspected terrorists sneak into an Indian army base in Kashmir’s Uri and kill 18 soldiers. Four attackers are also killed

2016

Eleven days later, Indian Army said it has carried out “surgical strikes” to destroy terror launch pads across the Line of Control in Pakistan

2019

India vows retaliation after at least 40 paramilitaries are killed in a suicide attack in Kashmir territory it controls. New Delhi blames the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) for the attack

2019

In the early hours of February 26, Indian conducts air strikes against what it calls JeM’s “biggest training camp”, killing “a very large number” of militants