What led up to the current conflict between India and Pakistan?

Kevin Maimann · CBC News

· Posted: May 08, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

The caller unit betwixt India and Pakistan marks a large resurgence successful the combat implicit the long-disputed portion of Kashmir, a fashionable tourer destination that lies astatine the foothills of the Himalayas astatine the bluish extremity of the Indian subcontinent.

India fired missiles into the Pakistani state of Punjab and Pakistan-run Kashmir in respective locations Wednesday, sidesplitting astatine slightest 26 in what Pakistan's person called an enactment of war. India said it was striking infrastructure utilized by militants linked to past month's sidesplitting of astatine slightest 26 tourists successful India-administered Kashmir. 

India has blamed Pakistan for backing the tourer attack, a assertion Pakistani officials deny.

Kenneth MacDonald, quality geography professor at the University of Toronto, says Kashmir has agelong been divided by caste, people and religion. 

But the onshore quality stems from the 1947 partition, erstwhile India and Pakistan gained independency from Britain. 

'Line of Control' established successful 1940s

During the partition, semi-autonomous states crossed the portion were being granted to India and Pakistan. At the time, Maharaja Hari Singh was ruler of the authorities of Jammu and Kashmir. He chose for the authorities to articulation Hindu-majority India, contempt having a bulk Muslim population in enactment with Pakistan.

The 1947-48 warfare saw Pakistan summation power of astir one-third of the larger portion of Kashmir, and led to a heavy militarized ceasefire borderline successful the mediate called the "Line of Control." Today, some countries assertion each of Kashmir, but each controls a conception of the territory connected either broadside of the Line of Control, which is not a legally recognized internationally boundary.

WATCH | The events that led to the existent India-Pakistan conflict:

Armed insurgents in India-run Kashmir person resisted Indian rule, and immoderate Muslim Kashmiris enactment either bringing the portion completely under Pakistani regularisation oregon becoming an autarkic country. 

MacDonald says determination person been galore "skirmishes" implicit the territory since, escalating into full-fledged wars successful 1965, 1971 and 1999.

But aft escalations of governmental unit done the 1980s and '90s, Pakistan successful 2002 began blocking Kashmiri fighters from entering India and banning extremist groups.

"The Pakistani authorities went to large lengths to enactment a halt to that successful 2002-03, and was comparatively successful," MacDonald told CBC News. However, "periodic outbursts" continued, notably with important attacks successful 2008, 2016 and 2019, causing drawn-out violence. 

Indian premier curate stoked choler successful 2019

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked India-administered Kashmir's peculiar status in 2019 — which had granted it constricted autonomy — and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) instituted caller rules allowing outsiders to bargain onshore successful the territory. 

Both moves angered galore Kashmiri residents. 

MacDonald does not judge Pakistan was progressive successful the caller tourer attack, which singled retired non-Muslims, saying the state "has adjacent to thing to gain" from supporting insurgents sidesplitting civilians successful India. But Modi, whose popularity successful India is floundering, nonetheless wants to "look strong" successful addressing the attack, helium said. 

The latest escalation from India is seen arsenic particularly superior successful portion due to the fact that it has moved beyond villages connected either broadside of the border, with India attacking successful Punjab, which MacDonald describes arsenic "the heartland of Pakistan." 

Michael Kugelman, a Washington-based South Asia expert and writer for the Foreign Policy magazine, says a sizeable Pakistani effect tin beryllium expected, fixed the standard of India's strike. 

"We've had a onslaught and a counter-strike, and what comes adjacent volition beryllium the strongest denotation of conscionable however superior a situation this could become," helium said.

Countries including the United States person helped incorporate past conflicts successful the region, fearing the consequences of escalation betwixt the nuclear-armed nations. 

But immoderate are acrophobic that the existent U.S. medication nether Donald Trump, which has taken a much isolationist approach, won't service arsenic a deterrent similar successful the past. 

Trump called the escalating struggle betwixt India and Pakistan "so terrible" connected Wednesday and urged some sides to halt the violence.