More than 40,000 people have been killed and over 200,000 displaced in a 17-year-old insurgency in Indian-ruled Kashmir. The frontier with Pakistan is one of the most militarised in the world.

Kashmir has triggered two wars between Pakistan and India and brought them to the verge of another in 2002. But there was a crucial difference - both countries by that time were nuclear powers.

India and Pakistan both claim the whole of Jammu and Kashmir. The predominantly Muslim territory, which is nearly the size of Britain, is divided by what is called the Line of Control. About 10 million live in the Indian-administered side and 3 million in the Pakistan-administered side. A small part lies in China.

At the end of British rule in 1947 the Indian sub-continent split into mainly Muslim Pakistan and the Hindu-majority state of India. Kashmir was given the option of joining either. Its Hindu ruler wanted to stay independent but, faced with an invasion by Muslim tribesmen from Pakistan, Kashmir acceded to India in return for military help.

After the ensuing war, a U.N.-enforced ceasefire line left India holding the east and south and Pakistan the north and west. The United Nations adopted resolutions calling for a referendum in Kashmir, but none has ever been held. The two countries fought over the Himalayan territory again in 1965.

They agreed to the current Line of Control, based on the ceasefire line, in the Shimla Agreement of 1972. The line, which runs through inhospitable terrain, has separated hundreds of families and even divided villages.

After Kashmir was hit by a massive earthquake in 2005 Pakistan and India agreed to open several crossing points to swap aid and allow families to meet. But many people saw the move as cosmetic and say the disaster has not brought the countries significantly closer.

The quake killed around 75,000 and left more than 3 million homeless, mostly in Pakistan.

Simmering resentment against New Delhi's rule in Indian-administered Kashmir erupted into open revolt in 1989. Some of those fighting want full independence while others would like to merge with Pakistan.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the guerrillas. Pakistan, which denies this, says the revolt is indigenous and that it only gives moral and diplomatic support to what it calls Kashmiri "freedom fighters".

Tensions between the two countries escalated in May 1999 when India launched an offensive, including air strikes, against Pakistan-backed infiltrators near Kargil.

The nuclear rivals came close to war after gunmen attacked the Indian parliament in December 2001. New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based militants fighting in Indian Kashmir - an accusation rejected by Islamabad.

India massed hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the border. Pakistan followed suit. Some 1 million troops confronted each other across the Line of Control at the height of the crisis.

More than 40,000 people, including thousands of civilians, have been killed since 1989. Human rights groups put the toll at around 60,000 dead and missing, while separatists say it's nearly 100,000.

International rights group Human Rights Watch has accused Indian forces of widespread violations including the shooting of unarmed demonstrators, civilian massacres, and summary executions.

Militant groups have murdered Hindu residents, carried out bombings and assassinated government officials, civil servants and suspected informers.

More than 90 per cent of the Hindu population in the Kashmir Valley, the region at the heart of the insurgency, have fled their homes since 1989. The state government says over 200,000 Kashmiri Hindus, known as Pandits, have been uprooted. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre says estimates range from 250,000 to 450,000.

Many Pandits spent several years living in tents before the state government placed them in temporary housing. Most live in abysmal and cramped conditions in the state's winter capital, Jammu. The state government provides food and cash.

The government has drawn up a plan for their return to the Kashmir Valley and started building accommodation in secure zones.

Tens of thousands of people living near the Line of Control have also been forced to flee their homes during periods of shelling and military build-ups along the border. Many have spent several years in tents but most returned home after the peace process began in late 2003.

The violence has also affected many families' livelihoods, hitting a vibrant tourist industry in an area famous for its outstanding beauty. Both domestic and foreign tourism have recently picked up.

New Delhi says Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of the country. But Pakistan insists India has no legal or moral right to the territory.

It says Kashmiris should still be allowed to vote in a referendum on their future, believing the majority would decide to join Pakistan.

But India rules this out. It says the Shimla Agreement provided for a resolution through bilateral talks.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said in December 2003 that Islamabad was prepared to put aside its insistence on a referendum in return for concessions from New Delhi.

Many in India favour formalising the current partition, making the Line of Control the international border, but Pakistan rules this out.

Both countries reject the option of Kashmir becoming an independent state, as demanded by some separatist factions.

Indian-administered Kashmir also has a Buddhist population in Ladakh and a Hindu population in the Jammu region, neither of which supports independence or accession to Pakistan.

Numerous groups have sprung up on both sides of the border. But the emphasis has shifted over the years from a nationalistic and secularist one to an Islamic one. About a dozen groups exist at the moment but only a handful are active.

The Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), which was at the forefront of the insurgency in 1989, declared a ceasefire in 1994 and is now waging a political battle for independence from both India and Pakistan. It retains strong support among Kashmiris.

Since the early 1990s the lead role in the insurgency has been taken over by Islamist militant groups, based in Pakistan or Pakistani-administered Kashmir, who want the entire territory to go to Pakistan.

One of the most feared groups is Lashkar-e-Taiba, which Pakistan banned in 2002 after it was linked to the attack on India's parliament.

Fighters from some groups, angered by Musharraf's peace moves, have forged ties with al Qaeda and been implicated in terrorist acts inside Pakistan.

A separatist political alliance in Indian-ruled Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), is split between a faction supporting negotiations with the Indian government and others which oppose them.

In April 2003, India's then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said he wanted to make a final push for peace in his lifetime and offered Pakistan a "hand of friendship".

The two sides agreed a ceasefire in November that year and began peace talks in 2004. They have restored diplomatic, travel and sport links and launched a limited cross-border bus service.

India has also allowed moderate separatists from the APHC to visit Pakistan for talks.

But diplomatic progress has been slow and violence continues, albeit at a reduced level.

Talks were put on ice in July 2006 after bomb blasts on commuter trains in Bombay killed more than 180 people. India blamed Pakistan-based militants.

The two sides resumed talks in November.

Neither side will agree to the other ruling the whole of Kashmir or to it becoming independent.

However, Musharraf has suggested in the past that Pakistan is not really interested in the mainly Hindu Jammu region or Buddhist Ladakh, but only in the Kashmir Valley.

Some academics have proposed a solution based on joint Indian and Pakistani sovereignty of a largely autonomous Kashmir Valley, with India retaining full control of Jammu and Ladakh. India refuses to consider this.

Others have suggested the Kashmir Valley could be granted full independence. But critics say the region would not be viable without external assistance - not only is it landlocked, but it is also snowbound during winter. India would in any case be unlikely to agree to the loss of territory involved.

At the end of 2006 Musharraf said Pakistan would abandon its claim to the region if India agreed to give the territory autonomy under joint supervision by both countries.