Since the partition of British India in 1947 and creation of India and Pakistan, the two South Asian countries have been involved in four wars, including one undeclared war, as well as many border skirmishes and military stand-offs. Additionally, India has accused Pakistan of engaging in proxy wars by providing military and financial assistance to violent non-state actors.

The dispute for Kashmir has been the cause, whether direct or indirect of all major conflicts between the two countries with the exception of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, where conflict originated due to turmoil in erstwhile East Pakistan.

The Partition of India came about in the aftermath of World War II, when both Great Britain and British India were dealing with the economic stresses caused by the war and its demobilisation. It was the intention of those who wished for a Muslim state to come from British India to have a clean partition between independent and equal "Pakistan" and "Hindustan" once independence came.

Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, MC "Sam Bahadur" (lit. Sam the Brave) (3 April 1914 – 27 June 2008) was a Field Marshal of the Indian Army. His distinguished military career spanned four decades and five wars. Manekshaw rose to be the 8th chief of staff of the Indian Army in 1969 and under his command, Indian forces concluded a victorious campaign, the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, that led to the liberation of Bangladesh.

Sam Manekshaw was the first of only two Indian military officers to hold the highest rank of Field Marshal in the Indian Army (the other being Field Marshal K M Cariappa).

Manekshaw was born in Amritsar, Punjab to Parsi parents, Hormusji Manekshaw, a doctor, and his wife Heerabai, who moved to the Punjab from the small town of Valsad on the Gujarat coast. After completing his schooling in Amritsar and Sherwood College (Nainital), with distinction in the School Certificate examination of the Cambridge Board, he asked his father to send him to London to study medicine. When his father refused to send him till he was older, in an act of rebellion Manekshaw appeared for and qualified in the entrance examination for enrolment into the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun and as a result became part of the first intake of 40 cadets on 1 October 1932. He graduated from the IMA on 4 February 1934 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Indian Army.

Syed Zaiduzzaman Hamid, better known as Zaid Hamid, is a Pakistani security consultant and political commentator. His byline in newspaper articles has been Zaid Zaman.

Zaid was born in Karachi, in 1964. His father, Col. Zaman Hamid (Retd), served in the Pakistan Army. Zaid spent his early life in Karachi. He received a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in Computer Systems Engineering from NED University, Karachi in 1980's.

Through his TV programmes, Hamid has claimed that a nexus between India's RAW, the CIA and is responsible for the destabilization of Pakistan. He also claims that the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, were part of a plan hatched by "Hindu Zionists"", and that it was an attempt by the Indians to stage an attack just like the Americans executed the September 11 attacks.

A number of noted Pakistani journalists, writers and Islamic scholars have criticized Hamid and have described his views on politics and security as conspiracy theories.