Kashmir, a centuries-old conflict that still is going on

The Kashmir region also called Jammu and Kashmir is a mountainous region in the vicinity of the Karakoram and westernmost Himalayan mountain ranges of the Indian subcontinente.  

Kashmir, formerly one of the largest princely states of India, has an area of 225,000 km2 and since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan and China ´

The region was divided amongst these three countries in a territorial dispute: Pakistan controls the northwest portion (Northern Areas and Kashmir), India controls the central and southern portion (Jammu and Kashmir) and Ladakh, and the People's Republic of China controls the northeastern portion (Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract). India controls the majority of the Siachen Glacier area, including the Saltoro Ridge passes, whilst Pakistan controls the lower territory just southwest of the Saltoro Ridge. India controls 101,338 km2 of the disputed territory, Pakistan controls 85,846 km2 , and the People's Republic of China controls the remaining 37,555 km2 

The population of the entire region is about 16 million of which the majority are in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir (12.5 million).

Although there was a clear Muslim majority in Kashmir before the 1947 partition and its economic, cultural, and geographic contiguity with the Muslim-majority area of the Punjab (in Pakistan) could be convincingly demonstrated, the political developments during and after the partition resulted in a division of the region. Pakistan was left with territory that, although basically Muslim in character, was thinly populated, relatively inaccessible, and economically underdeveloped. The largest Muslim group, situated in the Valley of Kashmir and estimated to number more than half the population of the entire region, lay in Indian-administered territory, with its former outlets via the Jhelum valley route blocked.

The eastern region of the former princely state of Kashmir was also involved in a boundary dispute that began in the late 19th century and continues into the 21st. Although some boundary agreements were signed between Great Britain, Afghanistan and Russia over the northern borders of Kashmir, China never accepted these agreements, and China's official position has not changed following the communist revolution of  1949 that established the People's Republic of China. By the mid-1950s the Chinese had entered the north-east portion of Ladakh.

"By 1956–57 they had completed a military road through the Aksar Chin area to vide better communication between Xinjiang and  western  Tibet. India's belated discovery of this road led to border clashes between the two countries that culminated in the Sino.Indian war of October 1962.

The main preent conflicts are mainly between India and Pakistan, with the large Muslin population in the Indian state Jammu-Kashmir do not agree with their belonging to an Indian state and are more linked to the Pakistan Kashmir population.  This conflict, which is at least 70 years old is still going on in 2019 and skirmiches and aerial bombing continues to take place and will probably still go on for many years in the future..