Figure 10 India – Pakistan Border fencing; Cross- Border landscape

THE INDIA-PAKISTAN BORDER

The India–Pakistan border, known colloquially as the International Border (IB), is the international boundary that divides India and Pakistan. The Line of Control (LOC) separates Indian-administered Kashmir from Pakistani-administered Kashmir at its northern end, and Sir Creek, a tidal estuary located within the Rann of Kutch between the Indian state of Gujarat and the Pakistani province of Sindh, is located at its southern end. (MHA 2011)

Figure 10 India – Pakistan Border fencing; Cross- Border landscape

Pakistan officially refers to the border between Indian-administered Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab as the "Working Boundary."

The border between the two countries is an internationally recognized Gujarat/Sind border, with the exception of the Line of Control, which is not recognized internationally. During the 1947 Indo-Pakistani War, the disputed region of Kashmir was divided into Pakistani-administered and Indian-administered Kashmir regions. The de facto border between the two regions was the 1949 UN-brokered Ceasefire Line, which was transformed into a Line of Control following the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.

Partition of India occurred in the aftermath of World War II, when both the United Kingdom and British India were dealing with the economic strains caused by the war and its demobilization. Those who wished for a Muslim state to emerge from British India intended for a clean partition between independent and equal "Pakistan" and "Hindustan" once independence arrived. Almost one-third of British India's Muslim population remained in India. Inter-communal violence between Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims claimed between 200,000 and 2 million lives and displaced 14 million people. India's princely states were given an Instrument of Accession to either India or Pakistan.(Sibi n.d.)