History of conflict between India and Pakistan on Kashmir issue dates back to the days of partition in the year 1947. Due to this issue, the two countries could never develop good- neighbourly relations with each other.
Many efforts were made to establish peace between India and Pakistan. Liaquat-Nehru Pact on the minorities issue was concluded in 1950. In the year 1949-50 India proposed a no-war-pact, Pakistan responded with the proposal of a joint defense pact, but made it conditional with the solution of Kashmir dispute. Since the offer was not acceptable for India, it was withdrawn in 1963.
Pakistan joined SEATO in 1954 and CENTO in 1955. These mutual security defense pacts were sponsored by the United States of America. These pacts were launched by the Americans who aimed at using Pakistan as a front-line-state against the Soviet Union. Under these pacts Pakistan received sizeable military aid from the US. Pakistan's increasing military strength caused alarm in India and tension between the two countries kept mounting. Feeling insecure and helpless, at one time, Indians looked towards the People's Republic of China for help and protection, a friendship treaty was signed between India and China in 1954, but this could not endure long due to the arrogant and insane attitude of the Indian leadership. In 1962 Indian forces tried to make an aggressive move into the Chinese territory but had to suffer a humiliating defeat. The Indian defeat led Pakistan's leadership to think that India was not as formidable as they previously had thought, she could be an easy target for Pakistani forces; on the other hand the Indian leadership decided to vindicate the humiliation, she had suffered at Chinese hands by hitting hard at Pakistan. The 1965 War between the two countries was a corollary of their perverted comprehension of the matters. The war started on Sept. 6, 1965 and continued for seventeen days. Both countries had to suffer heavy losses. Colossal loss of life and property taught the governments on both sides same lessons, but alas! The Indians did not see reason and decided to go nuclear, the Pakistanis decided to follow suit.
Till 1971 military imbalance between India and Pakistan had greatly increased. As a result of the general elections held in 1970, regional parties emerged victorious in both wings. The situation was very complex, but the leadership in both wings lacked prudence and political wisdom required for solving this complex problem. This resulted in the separation of East Pakistan in December 1971. In 1972 Pakistan's Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had a series of meetings with his Indian counterpart Mrs. Indira Gandhi at Simla in India. Under an agreement known as Simla Pact, India agreed to release more than 90 thousand Pakistanis taken as prisoners of war in East Pakistan. The parties agreed to solve all their disputes, including Kashmir, through negotiations and peaceful means.
India's first nuclear test in Rajasthan in the year 1974 sent a wave of insecurity throughout Pakistan. Pakistan's nuclear programme was its direct corollary. Nuclear capability was not an easy thing to acquire; it was an extremely expensive enterprise, accomplished at the cost of keeping our people, ill-fed and illiterate, for generations to come. Unfortunately the initiative came from the bigger partner of the power game which the smaller could not resist to follow.
India blamed Pakistan of provoking the Sikh militants in the Indian Punjab (1980) and supporting the Khalistan Movement. After the assassination of Indira Gandhi by a Sikh extremist in Oct,1984, relations between Pakistan and India got extremely strained. Indira's son Rajiv Gandhi succeeded her as Prime Minister. He openly blamed Pakistan for manoeuvring his mother's murder. The two countries seemed to be at daggers drawn with each other in 1987, when Pakistan's President Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq flew to India apparently for watching a cricket match there. He had a meeting with the Indian Prime Minister and was able to ward off the danger of war through his wise move.
After the revival of democracy in Pakistan in 1988, relations between Pakistan and India started improving. An agreement was reached between the Pakistan's Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Gandhi. In 1988 the two countries resolved to abstain from attacking each other's nuclear positions and to withdraw forces from Siachen. In 1990 Kashmiri freedom fighters started another round of active resistance against the Indian occupation. Indians charged Pakistan of sending infiltrators into the Kashmir Valley, and deployed more troops in occupied Kashmir. Relations of the countries saw many ups and downs in the next seven years. In the year 1997 Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral and the then Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif started a new round of talks; the process of conciliation had started showing positive signs but the governments in both countries were overthrown one after the other. The process came to a stand still. Atal Bihari Vajpai's bus journey to Pakistan in 1999 could not produced desired results due to the strong protest launched by opposition parties in Pakistan. In May 1999 Kashmiri
freedom fighters occupied an important military post in Kargil Dras Sector; Indians alleged that this was made possible with Pakistan's connivance. The Indian army labelled Kashmiri freedom fighters as Pakistani infiltrators, drove them into Pakistan territory and occupied some area in Pakistan territory. Indians took plea that these Pakistani "Infiltrators" were about to capture India's strategically important Ladakh Siachen Highway. After this, deployment of Indian forces in Kashmir was heavily increased.
In 1999 the Indian Prime Minister invited Gen. Pervez Musharraf to visit India for a round of talks, which he accepted later. A summit meeting was held at Agra on July 14, 2001, number of issues including Kashmir were discussed, a joint communique was drafted, at the last moment India's hard-line foreign minister managed to incorporate some changes in the draft of the joint communique, liberation movement of the Kashmiris was labelled as "cross-border terrorism", this rendered it impossible for the Pakistani President to sign the communique.
Last months of the year 2003 showed some positive signs, the most important breakthrough came when the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpai came to Islamabad to attend the SAARC Conference in 2004. The Indian Prime Minister and the President of Pakistan discussed issues of mutual concern in detail. As a result of these parleys tension was released to some extent. After this the situation started improving gradually but slowly. Since that time exchange of artists, intellectuals, and leaders of public opinion between the two countries has gone a long way to improving the general atmosphere. In August 2019, following the approval of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill from the Indian Parliament, further tension was brought between the two countries. As a result of this legislation special status of Jammu & Kashmir, established under UN resolutions passed in the early days of Indo-Pak independence, was changed and Indians were allowed to buy property and settle in Kashmir valley. This action of the Indian government spurred unrest in the Indian occupied Kashmir, Indo-Pak relation entered new phase of tension.
