Disputes between India and Pakistan stem from the 1947 British partitioning of India -- once a British possession -- into two independent nations. The region's predominantly Muslim provinces were divided into East and West Pakistan, while predominantly Hindu areas became modern India.

At the epicenter of the Indian-Pakistan conflict is the Jammu-Kashmir state, which, in 1947, had a predominantly Muslim population and was governed by an Indian ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh. He signed Jammu-Kashmir over to India on October 26.

Many Pakistanis say the Kashmir region, with its majority Muslim population, belongs in their Islamic state. Indians, meanwhile,
argue India has a legal right to the Kashmir territory.

India currently controls some two-thirds of the state; Pakistan controls about one-third.

Since 1947, India and Pakistan have been locked in a tense and often hostile rivalry. The two countries have fought three wars, with two centering on the Kashmir conflict. As many as 50,000 people have died over the war-torn province.

Pakistan has refused to accept the legitimacy of India's claim to Kashmir, and Pakistani militias and Kashmiri Muslim rebels have fought to overthrow Indian rule. When Indian forces moved into
the region to restore its control, the first major war between the two rivals began.

In August 1948, the United Nations intervened, issuing a resolution granting Pakistan control over the northern, and primarily Muslim, territory; leaving the remaining southern territory to India.
Another U.N. resolution called for a direct vote on Kashmiri self-
determination in the entire province, but India refused.

India deployed troops to the region to protect its borders from armed Pakistani and Kashmiri militias.

In July 1949, the U.N. Security Council enlarged its mission to the Kashmir region and passed another resolution creating a ceasefire line. Shortly afterward, Pakistan and India signed a deal, called
the Karachi Agreement, that recognized the ceasefire line
monitored by U.N. observers.