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Since their birth as independent nations in 1947, India and Pakistan have been at odds with each other. Their first conflict arose over the question of separating the Hindus into India and the Muslims into Pakistan. The Muslims and Hindus had been living in relative harmony in India during the reign of the British Empire, but, when India's independence movement was started, extreme Muslim leaders began to petition for a separate Muslim state. Muhammad Ali Jinna, …

…comes ahead of a rare visit by the Pakistani prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, to Delhi. Kashmir's moderate separatist leadership welcomed the decision to pull out some troops, but said it was even more important that human rights abuses stopped. "It is a welcome step but the troops should behave as security forces, not as an occupational force," said Moulana Abbas Ansari, of Kashmir's moderate wing of the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, a separatist grouping.