A quarter century has passed since India and Pakistan last fought a war over the Kashmir region. For people living there, the unresolved, deeply contentious border dispute continues to affect their daily and family lives.
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00:00For Ghulam Ahmad, visiting his mother's grave means getting a visa, crossing the border
00:07into Pakistan, and traveling over 2,500 kilometers through rough terrain.
00:13It's a long, hard, and pricey way to get to something that is really just a day's walk
00:17away.
00:18Like many people in his village in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Ahmad's family has been divided by
00:23one of India and Pakistan's many border conflicts.
00:27My mother was there, my father was there, and because of the war, my parents got stuck
00:34there.
00:35After getting stuck there, four or five years ago, I got a passport, an international passport,
00:40I got a visa from Delhi, I went to Amritsar and met them there.
00:44After a year, I got here, and I crossed the border.
00:47I reached Chiti.
00:48I crossed there, and I crossed there again.
00:50Since then, I haven't met anyone.
00:54Muslim-majority Pakistan and predominantly Hindu India are both celebrating 77 years
00:59of independence on August 14th and 15th.
01:02The two have fought three major wars since the Indian subcontinent was partitioned between
01:06them at the end of British colonial rule in 1947.
01:10Decades on, they remain at odds over control of mainly Muslim Kashmir, a region claimed
01:15in its entirety by both.
01:17For years, its villages and the families living in them have been divvied up between India
01:22and Pakistan by a heavily militarized informal border along the Indus River called the Line
01:28of Control.
01:44It's been over a quarter century since the two nuclear-armed states last came to blows.
01:49India regained control of the Kargil region after a 10-week war, setting Kashmir's current
01:54boundary.
01:55But for people in Kashmir, the checkpoints and fortifications mean the threat of war
02:00is never far from their minds.
02:20With little headway made toward resolving the deeply contentious border dispute that
02:25divides Kashmir, families separated by the Line of Control are left to communicate over
02:30the internet.
02:31While it's a sign that the communities are becoming less isolated, for people living
02:35here on the Indian side, it's a poor substitute to meeting face-to-face.
02:50After 77 years of independence and 25 years of relative peace, Kashmir still faces an
03:01uncertain future, meaning for the people living there, seeing loved ones just a day's walk
03:06away may still be a long way off.
03:08Patrick Chen and Bryn Thomas for Taiwan Plus.