Timeline of The Kashmir Conflict - 1987

Now: Kashmir Insurgency

1987: Farooq Abdullah wins the elections. The Muslim United Front (MUF) accuses that the elections have been rigged. The insurgency in the valley increases in momentum from this point on, given the consistent failure of democracy and limited employment opportunities. The MUF candidate Mohammad Yousuf Shah is not only cheated in the rigged elections, but also imprisoned and he would later become Syed Salahuddin, chief of militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahedin. His election aides called the HAJY group - Abdul Hamid Shaikh, Ashfaq Majid Wani, Javed Ahmed Mir and Mohammed Yasin Malik - would join the JKLF. Amanullah Khan takes refuge in Pakistan, after being deported from England and begins to direct operations across the LoC. Young disaffected Kashmiris in the Valley such as the HAJY group are recruited by JKLF.

1988: Protests begin in the Valley along with anti-India demonstrations, followed by police firing and curfew.

1989: End of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan releases a great deal of militant energy and weapons to Kashmir. Pakistan provides arms and training to both indigenous and foreign militants in Kashmir, thus adding fuel to the smouldering fire of discontent in the valley.

1990: In January, Jagmohan is appointed as the Governor. Farooq Abdullah resigns. On 20 January, an estimated 100 people are killed when a large group of unarmed protesters are fired upon by the Indian troops at the Gawakadal bridge. With this incident, it becomes an insurgency of the entire population. On March 1, an estimated one million take to the streets and more than forty people are killed in police firing. On 13 February, Lassa Kaul, director of Srinagar Doordarshan, is killed by the militants for implementing pro-Indian media policy. Though the JKLF tries to explain that the killings of Pandits were not communal, the murders cause a scare among the minority Hindu community. The rise of new militant groups, some warnings in anonymous posters and some unexplained killings of innocent members of the community contribute to an atmosphere of insecurity for the Kashmiri Pandits. Joint reconciliation efforts by members from both Muslim and Pandit communities are actively discouraged by Jagmohan. Most of the estimated 162,500 Hindus in the Valley, including the entire Kashmiri Pandit community, flee the Valley in March.

1990 and after: An officially estimated 10,000 desperate Kashmiri youth cross-over to Pakistan for training and procurement of arms. Indigenous and foreign militant groups besides pro-India renegade militants proliferate through the 1990s with an estimated half a million Indian security forces deployed in the Kashmir Valley since the 1990s with increasing violence and human right violations by all sides leading to tens of thousands of civilian casualties.

July 14–16, 2001: General Pervez Musharraf and Atal Behari Vajpayee meet for peace talks.

September 24, 2004: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Musharraf meet in New York during UN General Assembly.

June 2010: Following the killing of a young Kashmiri Tufail Ahmad Mattoo, protest demonstrations continue in Kashmir for months.

June 2011: September - Indian forces kill three Pakistani soldiers in firing across the Line of Control. India accuses Pakistan of opening fire first.

June 2012: August - The Chief Minister of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, says that the security situation there is not yet conducive to the revoking of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the state.

June 2012: September - Indian President Pranab Mukherjee visits Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir within two months of taking up office. Despite the threat of protests from separatists, see Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, the visit passes off without serious incident.

Timeline of The Kashmir Conflict - 1987 - Now: Kashmir Insurgency