It is estimated that over 70,000 people have died in the last two decades alone. The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) documents over 8,000 enforced disappearances.
Amid the chaos of independence, Maharaja Hari Singh delayed joining either India or Pakistan. Faced with a tribal invasion from Pakistan, he signed a controversial Instrument of Accession to India, which was meant to be provisional pending a free and fair plebiscite. The Human Toll of Occupation
The "deep story" of Kashmir—as explored in Kashmir: The Case for Freedom by authors like , Pankaj Mishra , and Tariq Ali —frames the region not merely as a territorial dispute between two nuclear powers, but as a long-standing indigenous struggle for self-determination against centuries of "outsider" rule. Historical Roots of Resistance