For over fifty years, Indo-Pakistani relations oscillated between heightening and tapering tensions. The tension has erupted into war, has been played out through government statements, and attempts have been made to be resolve issue(s) through summits and high-level talks. But what is the core issue that fuels the flame of mistrust between these two countries?

India and Pakistan do not identify the same issue to be the root cause of the inter-state tensions. For India, terrorism is the core issue that has alienated it from its western neighbour. The terrorist attacks in Kashmir, and in the rest of the country are an enormous source of concern for both the Indian government and its people. These acts of terror are costing countless innocent lives, wreaking havoc, and making life uneasy for all Indians. Terrorism threatens the very stability of the country, especially in Kashmir.

For the Indian government, Kashmir itself is not as pressing an issue as terrorism is. While the Kashmiri issue is important, it is not the central problem which is disturbing India; it is Pakistan's state-sponsored terrorism. The cost of policing Kashmir and the Indo-Pakistani border, and supporting various other methods of curbing terrorist activity is tremendous. Evidence has shown that Pakistan harbours terrorists, allows training camps to be set up in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and in Pakistan itself, and often supports them strategically and financially. Along with the problems nation faces, money much needed elsewhere is being diverted to combating terrorism. India is enraged that Pakistan is nurturing and helping this scourge to grow and to affect more Indians with each attack. Furthermore, India's problems are compounded due to the large scale property damage which results from such attacks.

On the other hand, Pakistan has insisted since partition that Kashmir is the core issue. Manifestations of Pakistan's zeal for acquiring the territory begin on October 22, 1947, with its first military incursion aimed at manipulating Maharaja Hari Singh into declaring Jammu & Kashmir to be part of Pakistan. Due to this invasion, known as Operation Gulmarg, Pakistan acquired about a third of Kashmir, known today as PoK. Since then, Pakistan has tried numerous times to take the rest of the territory it deems to rightfully be its own. One of its tactics includes terrorism; specifically the use of Pakistanis carrying out insurgent activities in Indian-held Kashmir, in order to create the illusion of indigenous unrest in the region. Pakistan hosts terrorist camps because terrorism is its way of achieving its goals and correcting perceived injustices. Terrorism is a tool Pakistan is using to mould global opinion to believe that the Kashmiris are dissatisfied with the India, therefore insisting that the Kashmiris would prefer to join Pakistan.

Declaring that both countries wish to resolve the Kashmiri conflict expediently and peacefully, India and Pakistan have sat at the negotiating table on numerous occasions. Nonetheless, a solution is yet to be reached. In 1999, both parties affirmed their hopes of settling the Kashmiri conflict, yet no real solid progress was made. At the Agra Summit in July 2001, negotiations ended in a deadlock over the issue of Kashmir. Although many such meetings have failed to provide a solution, each country is also guilty, in other capacities, of slowing progress at one point or another. Pakistan, shortly after the Lahore Summit, tried to infiltrate Indian Kashmir via Kargil. This action deftly reversed any warm feelings the two countries had begun to nurture after the summit in Lahore a few months earlier. Much earlier in the 1970s, India infuriated Pakistan when it encouraged, trained, armed, and financed the Mukti Bahini in its nationalist objective of creating a nation in East Bengal, independent of Pakistan. This policy led to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, simultaneously depleting the geographical size of Pakistan by about a half.

Though each country identifies a different issue to be the core issue which divides India and Pakistan, both issues are nonetheless inextricably intertwined. Pakistan resorts to terrorism in order to achieve its goal of acquiring Kashmir. Still, with the War on Terror being waged, and the United States vowing to root out all terrorism, Pakistan's situation has become precarious. The aid, technology, and alliance which Pakistan receives from the United States helps keep it afloat. Pakistan now has a choice to make, it can either continue to support terrorism, or it can continue to receive American support; the juggling act which Pakistan has managed to maintain cannot go on forever.

Thus many questions remain about the future of relations between the two countries. Will Pakistan decrease its terrorist activities and sever its terrorist connections due to international pressure? Or will the end to the Pakistani supported terrorism in Kashmir come if and when the Kashmiri dispute is resolved? Whatever the resolution, one must hope to see a swift and sudden end to instability in the Kashmiri region, for the sake of the Kashmiri people, who have endured too much.