Sumantra Bose identifies the players in the Kashmir conflict. (5:21 min)

Sumantra Bose: At the moment, Kashmir is a free-for-all. It is a mêlée of armed groups, of which the largest single armed group is undoubtedly the security forces of the Indian state. There are several hundred thousand of these stationed in Jammu and Kashmir, patrolling the Line of Control and attempting to keep the lid on violence within Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. Their main adversary has been a variety of armed opposition groups of more or less Islamist orientation. For example, the single largest armed group that has been fighting the Indian forces in recent times is called Hizb'ul Muja hideen. Despite its rather ominous name, Warriors of the Faith, it is considered a relatively moderate group by Kashmiri standards. Its fighters consist largely of Kashmiris from the Indian side of the dividing line, that is, locals.

University of Texas Library/CIA

Map of the Kashmir region.

But there are a variety of other groups that are also active on the Indian side of the Line of Control. Members mainly consist, not of local Kashmiris, as with the Hizb'ul Muja hideen, but rather Jihadis or ideologically-committed holy warriors from Pakistan, the Pakistani part of Jammu and Kashmir, and in some cases from Afghanistan and other Muslim countries. These groups are considered to be the most radical elements in the picture in recent times because they apparently do not appear to believe in the efficacy of any kind of dialogue or peaceful approach to the problem based on co-operation and compromise. They want to keep endlessly waging a jihad or holy war against the infidel occupation of a Muslim society by Indian forces.

Sumantra Bose

The martyrs graveyard, Eid Gah, in Srinagar, Kashmir is resting place to over 800 separatist guerilla leaders. The graves in this image are of three particularly prominent and beloved warriors. Their grave stones are inscribed with elegant Urdu verse commemorating their lives and deaths. The flag of the guerilla organisation, the JKLF is also hoisted in this cemetary.

	Glossary
	Hizb'ul Muja hideen Literally translated as Warriors of the Faith, the Hizb'ul Muja hideen is the single largest armed group fighting the Indian armed forces. By Kashmiri standards it is considered a relatively moderate group. Its fighters consist largely of local Kashmiris from the Indian side of the dividing line. It has been active since the early days of the insurgency and favours integration into Pakistan.

The recent picture contains the huge Indian state security apparatus on the one hand, and various armed guerrilla groups on the other, of which the indigenously-based Hizb'ul Muja hideen is the largest but not the only group. here is also a variety of much more implacable guerrilla groups in the picture consisting of nonlocals committed to the principle of holy war. But this has not always been the case. When the Kashmiri insurgency erupted in early 1990, it wKashmirisas actually launched by a group of young local who were members of a movement called the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). The JKLF was the predominant organisation on the Kashmiri side for the first two or three years of the armed campaign against Indian rule. It believes in an independent Kashmir and it is also largely secularist in its political orientation. But, because of Indian repression and Pakistani manipulation, the JKLF movement got militarily marginalised after the first few years of the insurgency and more radical and Islamist groups took centre stage. First, there was the Hizb'ul Muja hideen, followed by a variety of other Jihadi groups who came over the disputed border to fight Indian oppression of fellow Muslims, as they see it.

	Glossary
	Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) The JKLF was the predominant militant organisation on the Kashmiri side for the first few years of the armed campaign against Indian rule. The JKLF supports an independent Kashmir and is largely secularist in its orientation. It now exists as a political outfit.

This shows how the character of the Kashmir movement for self-determination has changed over time. Hower, one thing that has remained constant, whether it has been the JKLF in the saddle, or the Hizb'ul Muja hideen, or anyone else, is a longing to be free of a very repressive form of Indian control. Most Kashmiris living in the war zone do not really trust Pakistan: it is perceived as a manipulative and deceitful country with its own agenda in Kashmir. Simultaneously, the population in the war zone is very embittered by what they consider to be horrible forms of Indian brutality towards them, including massacres, rapes and cordon-and-search operations in which civilians are victimised and humiliated.

Yet the situation is clearly more complex than even that, and is bound up with ethnolinguistic and regional distributions and loyalties.

Sumantra Bose

A victim of violence and his family recuperate in a hospital in Kupwara in northern Kashmir. "The population in the war zone is very embittered by what they consider to be horrible forms of Indian brutality towards them, including massacres, rapes and cordon-and-search operations in which civilians are victimised and humiliated." Violence is perpetrated by all sides.