Almost 80 years of unrest in hotly disputed Kashmir

AFTER the end of British rule in the subcontinent and the 1947 birth of a sovereign India and Pakistan, Kashmir was free to choose which side to join.

- BY CHRIS HUGHES

Its leader, or Maharaja, opted for India in return for its help against an invasion of Pakistani tribesmen.

War erupted, the UN stepped in and could not solve the issue for the whole of Kashmir and in 1949, India and Pakistan signed an agreement to establish a ceasefire line that cut the region in two.