75 years of partition and India-Pakistan tensions
India and Pakistan were born 75 years ago out of a bloody division of the Indian subcontinent by the colonial British
India and Pakistan became two separate countries 75 years ago, when the Colonial British left the Indian subcontinent in an event commonly called the Partition.
Today, India and Pakistan are both nuclear-armed countries and have a tense relationship, mainly because they both claim the region of Kashmir, says Al Jazeera.
Here are some important events in their history:
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1947: Partition of India
Overnight on August 14-15, 1947, Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India, brought the curtain down on two centuries of British rule. The Indian subcontinent is divided into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
A poorly prepared partition throws life into disarray, displacing some 15 million and unleashing sectarian bloodshed that kills nearly two million people.
1949: Kashmir's division
Late in 1947, war broke out between the two neighbours over Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region in the Himalayas.
A United Nations-backed, 770 km (478-mile) ceasefire line in January 1949 became a de facto frontier dividing the territory, now known as the Line of Control and heavily militarised on both sides.
Some 37 percent of the territory is administered by Pakistan and 63 percent by India, with both claiming it in full.
1965: Second war
Pakistan launched a war in August 1965 against India for control of Kashmir. It ended inconclusively seven weeks later after a ceasefire brokered by the Soviet Union.
1971: Bangladesh is born
The neighbours fought a third war in 1971 over Islamabad's rule in then East Pakistan, with New Delhi supporting Bengali nationalists seeking independence for what would in March 1971 become Bangladesh. Three million people died in the short war.
1974: Nuclear race
India detonates its first atomic bomb in 1974, while Pakistan's first public test will not come until May 1998. India carried out five tests that year and Pakistan six. Respectively the world's sixth and seventh nuclear powers, they stoke global concern and sanctions.
1989: Kashmir rebellion
An uprising breaks out in Indian-administered Kashmir against New Delhi's rule in 1989, and thousands of fighters and civilians are killed in the following years as battles between security forces and Kashmiri rebels roil the region.
Widespread human rights abuses are documented on both sides of the conflict as the rebellion takes hold.
Thousands of Kashmiri Hindus fled to other parts of India from 1990 onwards fearing reprisal attacks.
1999: Kargil conflict
In 1999, Pakistan-backed rebels crossed the disputed Kashmir border, seizing Indian military posts in the icy heights of the Kargil mountains.
Indian troops push the intruders back, ending the 10-week conflict, which kills nearly 1,000 fighters and soldiers on both sides. The battle ends under pressure from the United States.
A series of attacks in 2001 and 2002, which India blamed on Pakistan-based armed groups, led to a new mobilisation of troops on both sides.
A ceasefire was declared along the frontier in 2003, but a peace process launched the following year ended inconclusively.
2008: Mumbai attacks
In November 2008, a group of heavily armed attackers attacked the Indian city of Mumbai and killed 166 people. India blames Pakistan's intelligence service for the assault and suspends peace talks.
Contacts resumed in 2011, but the situation was marred by sporadic fighting.
Indian troops stage cross-border raids in Kashmir against separatist positions.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit in December 2015 to Pakistan.
2019: Autonomy revoked
India vows retaliation after 41 paramilitary members are killed in a 2019 suicide attack in Kashmir claimed by a Pakistan-based armed group.
Tit-for-tat air raids by the two nations take them to the brink of war.
Later that year, India suddenly revokes Kashmir's limited autonomy under the constitution, detaining thousands of political opponents in the territory.
Authorities impose what becomes the world's longest internet shutdown and troops are sent to reinforce the estimated half a million security forces already stationed there.
Tens of thousands of people, mainly civilians, have been killed since 1990 in the rebellion.
