Kashmir, a 222,236 square km region in the northwestern Indian subcontinent, is surrounded by China to the northeast, the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south, and Pakistan in the west, and from Afghanistan in the northwest. One part of Kashmir is called Jammu and Kashmir and the other part of the Pakistan-controlled region is known as Azad Kashmir. The Kashmir Valley is one of the most fertile lands on the planet, thick with rich pine and cedar forests and covered in paddy fields, hemp and saffron, apple, apricot and walnut orchards. “Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashemere,” wrote the Irish poet Thomas Moore in 1817, “with its brightest roses that the earth ever gave.” Kashmir is so breathtaking in terms of physical beauty that the Mugal emperors in the 16th and 17th centuries considered it "an earthly paradise". If Kashmir was a paradise under the Mugals, it has been nothing of the sort since the mid-20th century (unfortunately). . The region has been dubbed a "disputed territory" between India and Pakistan since the partition of India in 1947. Although, during the partition, the agreement stipulated that any area with more than 70% Muslims would go to Pakistan. Kashmir has more than 90% Muslims and therefore clearly should have been part of Pakistan, but Kashmir was divided, with two-thirds going to India and one-third going to Pakistan, even though India's share was predominantly Muslim. Because of this integrity, the Muslims rebelled. India suppressed them and war broke out again. In 1965, India and Pakistan fought the second of three major wars that began in 1947 over control of Kashmir. The United States was largely responsible for setting the stage for the war. The second Kashmir war, never declared, broke out on August 15, 1965 and lasted until... middle of paper... I am a common man and have nothing to do with politics. I know only one thing that my Kashmiri Muslim brothers have problems and it needs to be resolved. From the bottom of my heart I want Kashmir to be a part of Pakistan. But once again we do not want to impose our will on the people of Kashmir. Whatever they decide, the Pakistani nation will accept it. I don't know when the Indian government will allow him to decide. The people of Kashmir should come out and put pressure on their respective governments to resolve this bloody issue once and for all. Ultimately the moral is that Kashmiris should be allowed to choose their own destiny. Enough blood has already been shed. Here India is belligerent to the point of embarrassment. But all belligerent nations have had to eat humble pie at some point. We have no doubt that ultimately Kashmiris will be the final arbiters of their own destiny.