In the seventy-two years since India and Pakistan gained independence from British rule, tens of thousands have been killed in the neighbouring countries' dispute over Kashmir.
When Britain left in 1947 and India and Pakistan were partitioned, Kashmir state initially decided to be independent of both countries before ceding to India later that year.
Ever since, there has been a succession of skirmishes between the two nuclear powers over the region; a proposed UN plebiscite on the issue never happened in either India-administered or Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
While a line of control was drawn in 1972 after three wars between India and Pakistan, and several ceasefires declared, the violence the valley has persisted.
As recently as February a suicide bomber rammed a car into a bus in Kashmir, killing forty Indian paramilitary police on board, and heightening tensions.
Now, India-Pakistan ties have been further strained after India announced it would revoke constitutional provisions that allows the Indian controlled state of Jammu and Kashmir to make its own laws.
Crucially the changes would scrap laws limiting property purchases and ownership to Kashmir residents - an important regulation for India's only Muslim-majority state in resisting a demographic balance - which brings it in line with the rest of the country.
Welcoming this decision, a Kashmiri now living in Delhi said, "Our 30 years of banishment has ended. The most important thing is that now Jammu and Kashmir will prosper. Today is the actual independence. It is a historic and very good step for us that Article 370 has been scrapped."
