In August 1947, with the end of British colonial rule in South Asia, India and Pakistan were formally partitioned, forming the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of India respectively, but at this time there was still a princely state that was undecided, and that was Kashmir.
Before leaving, the British decided that it was up to the princely states to decide which country to join or become independent, but the princes of Kashmir were Hindus, and the majority of the people were Muslims, vacillating between joining India and Pakistan, and if they became independent, India and Pakistan would certainly not agree, and soon, civil strife broke out in Kashmir, and Pakistan and India began a war for Kashmir.
In the beginning, Pakistan had the upper hand, but soon, India relied on its tank superiority to go back and occupy most of Kashmir, the first Indo-Pakistani war, which lasted from October 1947 to January 1949, the two sides finally fought a tug-of-war, and finally a ceasefire under the mediation of the United Nations, India occupied 60% of Kashmir, including the most fertile Kashmir Valley, while Pakistan occupied the remaining 40%.
On the map, Kashmir is located in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent and is a junction between China, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, with an area of 1730,000 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the area of Guizhou Province in China, and more than 90% of Kashmir is continuous mountainous land, with high altitude, extensive forests and rich tourism resources, and was once called "the Switzerland of South Asia".
From the perspective of strategic position, if India owns the whole of Kashmir, it is equivalent to having a tentacle extending to Central Asia, penetrating Central Asia to the northwest, attacking and harassing China to the east, and Pakistan to the south.
For Pakistan, it is not so simple, Kashmir looks like a hat on the head from the map, or more specifically, Kashmir is the head of Pakistan.
In terms of terrain, Kashmir is condescending and has a strong diving advantage over Pakistan below, and if the other side has Kashmir, Pakistan's national defense security is really dangerous.
In addition to Kashmir, the topography of Pakistan as a whole can be divided into three parts, the mountainous and hilly region in the west, the Indus River Plain in the middle and the Thar Desert region in the east, the most suitable area for living in Pakistan is the central Indus River Plain region, which gathers more than 90% of the country's population.
The formation of the Indus River Plain is completely dependent on the Indus River, without the Indus River there would be no this great plain, and there will be no prosperity and wealth of Pakistan, especially the Punjab Province located in the land of five rivers, with a total population of 110 million, is the most populous province in Pakistan, and is also the most important industrial and agricultural production area, GDP accounts for more than 60% of the country, production and life completely depend on the Indus River, but most of the main streams and tributaries of the Indus River flow through or originate in Kashmir.
The main stream originates from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China, the source is the Shiquan River in China, flows through Kashmir and enters Pakistan, and finally flows into the Arabian Sea, six large tributaries, namely the Kabul River originating in Afghanistan and the Jhelum River, the Djinab River, the Rawe River, the Bias River and the Sutlej River originating in the Himalayas, except for the Kabul River, the remaining rivers are almost all related to Kashmir.
After India and Pakistan divided Kashmir, from the map, four of the six headwaters of the Indus River and its main stream flow through Indian-administered Kashmir and two through India, that is, almost all the sources of the Indus River are controlled by India.
Once India cuts off the water source of the Indus River, Pakistan will have no water to use, and it will suffer a devastating blow, and the whole country will become depressed.
In 1960, under the mediation of the World Bank, the two countries signed the Indus River Water Treaty, which stipulates that the West Three Rivers, including the main stream, will be used by Pakistan, and the East Three Rivers will be used by India, of which the West Three Rivers have the largest amount of water, accounting for about 80% of the total water volume, and the East Three Rivers account for about 20% of the water volume.
After the treaty was signed, India built a large number of aqueducts to divert water from the East Three Rivers into its own territory, and the downstream rivers flowing into Pakistan were almost dry.
In order to irrigate the eastern region, Pakistan diverted water from the West Three Rivers, built a West-East Water Transmission Project, built a large number of irrigation networks, and transferred water to the irrigation areas of the former East Three Rivers, so that the eastern industry and agriculture could ensure water supply.
However, with the increasing population of India and Pakistan, global climate change, and the shortage of water and electricity, India has begun to actively build reservoirs and hydropower stations in the upper reaches of the Indus River, and Pakistan once again feels threatened.
For example, India has built the Bakla Dam in the upper reaches of the Sutlej River, which is 225 meters high, forming a 170-kilometer Govind Lake with a reservoir capacity of 9.3 billion cubic meters, which is a quarter of the capacity of the Three Gorges.
The Pando Dam was built in the upper reaches of the Bias River, creating an artificial lake with a storage capacity of about 8.7 billion cubic meters.
The Ranjit Sagar Dam was built on the Ravi River, with a height of 160 meters and a storage capacity of about 3.2 billion cubic meters. The completion of the three reservoirs has improved water utilization, increased irrigation area and increased power generation in India.
In recent years, India has also begun to consider building hydropower stations on the West Three Rivers that flow through Indian-administered Kashmir, for example, India has built three hydropower stations on the Djinab River, the Jishanganga Dam on the Neelum River, a tributary of the Jhelum River, and several small hydropower stations near Leh on the main stream of the Indus River.
The construction of these hydropower stations, for Pakistan, obviously has the risk of being stuck in the water source, by Pakistan's strong **, in fact, at the moment of the India-Pakistan conflict, Pakistan's downstream water sources are always inexplicably reduced, but because of the restrictions of the treaty, India has not done too much.
But in any case, because India controls the upper reaches of the Indus River system, for Pakistan, it is like a sword of Damocles hanging over its head, and it will be pinched from time to time, and Pakistan is obviously at a disadvantage in the entire India-Pakistan conflict, coupled with Pakistan's weak national strength, without the help and mediation of the big powers, Pakistan is really dangerous.