Kashmir Insurgency

When JKLF members abducted the daughter of India's Home Minister in 1989, the insurgency in Kashmir's Indian portion officially got under way. They sought the exchange of some of their own militants, and eventually got their wish. Following the kidnapping, there were numerous protests across the state, which led Indian security forces to launch a harsh counter-insurgency operation.

One of the longest-running ongoing insurgencies in the world, the Kashmir insurgency in the Indian side of Kashmir, is sometimes attributed to that one incident. Following that, other armed insurgency groups—some of them extremist—started to emerge throughout the region in the 1990s, which was a problem made worse by the circumstances in Afghanistan.

This was the beginning of the armed, violent rebellion that has so far killed up to 70,000 people, though the actual number may be much higher. Kashmir already had a complicated geopolitical status at the time because it was controlled in part by India, Pakistan, and China following the British withdrawal in 1947. Even though the worst of it is over, there are still clashes with the local police and counterterrorism raids in villages all over Kashmir.

Date: 13 July 1989 – present (33 years, 5 months and 2 days)

Location: Jammu and Kashmir

Status: Ongoing