War and Conflict Journal

Reports are coming to light about Chinese military incursions into Indian-controlled portions of Jammu-Kashmir along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in south-eastern Ladakh region in September-October 2010.  Earlier, in 2009, Chinese military aircraft flew over the disputed region.

Sino-Indian War of 1962 at http://www.historyguy.com/warfiles/sino-indian_war_warfile.htm

Read more: Chinese troops intrude into Ladakh, halt govt project – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Chinese-troops-intrude-into-Ladakh-halt-govt-project/articleshow/7250270.cms#ixzz1AfFu2pON

India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed neighbors who have already fought three major wars and several minor wars against each other, exchanged fire across their mutual border in the Kashmir region.

See the article below from http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/21/asia/AS-Kashmir-Shooting.php

for more information:

Indian troops were fired upon across the heavily fortified frontier in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, injuring a soldier, army officials said Saturday, even as Pakistan blamed Indian army soldiers for the shooting.

Brig. Gopala Krishnan Murali, a senior Indian army officer in India’s Jammu-Kashmir state, would not say whether suspected Islamic rebels or Pakistani soldiers initiated Friday’s firing, but said that a formal complaint had been lodged with Pakistan.

Pakistan’s army, meanwhile, said it was Indian troops who “resorted to unprovoked firing.” An army statement said that a protest had been filed “for cease-fire violation.”

The overwhelmingly Muslim region has been the focus of two of the three wars between India and Pakistan, who both claim Kashmir. Relations between the two have been further strained by last year’s terror attacks in Mumbai that killed 164 people.

India has blamed the attack on Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist militant group widely believed to be created by Pakistani intelligence agencies in the 1980s to fight Indian rule in the divided Kashmir region.

A gunbattle broke out in the Uri region, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of the state capital of Srinagar, after Indian forces were fired upon, Murali said. They returned fire, and the clash lasted about three hours.

Exchanges of gunfire along the Line of Control — as the frontier separating Indian and Pakistani territory in Kashmir is known — were a regular occurrence before the two sides signed a cease-fire in late 2003. There have been several incidents since the agreement, with both sides accusing the other of initiating the shootings.

This is the first such incident this year, Indian army spokesman Lt. Col. J.S. Brar said.

Nearly a dozen Islamic rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict since 1989, and India routinely accuses Pakistan of assisting the insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies.

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/21/asia/AS-Kashmir-Shooting.php

Indian and Pakistani forces exchanged fire across their contested common border in the Kashmir region on July 26.  This is the second such military engagement in July.  A previous clash occurred on July 10, 2008. 

India and Pakistan have fought several wars in the past, and the Kashmir region is a major flashpoint for their ongoing conflict.  Relations have improved greatly since 2002, but recent terrorist attacks against Indian targets in Afghanistan (the Indian embassy) and in Indian cities in July, most likely by Militant Muslim terrorists, have increased the tensions.

Pakistan, India trade fire along LoC–July 26

For a listing of Indo-Pakistani wars, see http://www.historyguy.com/indo_pakistani-wars.html

Pakistan’s Violent Political History Continues
With Bhutto’s Assassination

With the political assassination of former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007, Pakistan’s bloody
tradition of political violence continues to plague an already
fractured and unstable country.

A short list of significant acts of political
violence in Pakistan. Note that Pakistan has been an independent
nation only since 1947.

–1947-Independence from the British and the
violent separation from India (several million killed in Pakistan and
India)

–First Kashmir War
(1947-1948) with India

–1948–Pakistani
annexation of Baluchistan, military suppression of Baluch
nationalists.

–1951–Assassination of
Pakistan’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan

–Pakistan’s first President, Iskandar Mirza,
throws out the constitution and declares martial law on October 7,
1958

–General Ayub Khan overthrows Iskander Mirza in a
bloodless coup d’etat on October 7, 1958.

–1958-1960–Pakistani military suppression of
Baluch nationalists

–Second Kashmir War (1965)
with India

–Bangladesh War of
Independence (1971) from Pakistan (Bangladesh had, from 1947 to 1971,
been part of Pakistan, best known as East Pakistan). India intervened
in the war to aid Bangladesh against Pakistan

–1973-1976-Rebellion in
Baluchistan, a province in southwestern Pakistan

–1977–Military coup
overthrows Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was replaced by
General Zia al-Huq.

–1979–Former Prime
Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed after a controversial
trial.

–Kargil
War (Kashmir Border Conflict) border
war with India

–October, 1999–General Pervez
Musharraf overthrows
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless military coup

–Waziristan
War
(2004-Present)-against tribal rebels and al-Qaida fighters in the
Northwest border region

–2003–Two unsuccessful
assassination attempts against President Pervez
Musharraf

–July, 2003–Siege and Battle at the Red Mosque–over 100 killed.

–October 18,
2007–Assassination attempt on former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
upon her return from exile

–December 27,
2007–Assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in
Rawalpindi