All Party Hurriyat Conference: Umbrella organisation, which campaigns peacefully for an end to India's presence in Kashmir. It is made up of at least 23 groups including trade unions, as well as religious and political organisations.

Atal Behari Vajpayee: Prime minister of India since 1998 for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. He initiated a cease-fire in November 2000 to honour the Islamic fast of Ramadan. In May 2001, he invited Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf to India for summit level talks on Kashmir and other issues.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir: That part of Jammu and Kashmir under Pakistani control is known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir or "free," "liberated" Jammu and Kashmir.

Bakerwals: Kashmiri tribal Muslims. They are nomadic pastoralists who dwell mainly in the Kashmir valley and a few other areas.

Doda: District in the Jammu region, which happens to have a Kashmiri speaking Muslim majority although Hindus still make up a sizeable 40 percent of its population. By 1992, guerrilla operations had spread to this district.

Dogra:Rajput clan that still exists in large numbers in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The feudal chief Gulab Singh, was made raja of Jammu in 1820, thus beginning the Dogra dynasty. He expanded to the north incorporating Ladakh and Baltistan and acquired the Kashmir Valley in 1846.

Gujjars:Predominantly Muslim nomadic pastoralists who are concentrated around parts of the Kashmir valley. They usually live in remote mountainous areas and suffer from above average levels of poverty and illiteracy. They constitute the single largest ethnic group in many parts of Rajouri and Poonch.

Hizb'ul Muja hideen: Literally translated as Warriors of the Faith, the Hizb'ul Muja hideen is the single largest armed group fighting the Indian armed forces. By Kashmiri standards it is considered a relatively moderate group. Its fighters consist largely of local Kashmiris from the Indian side of the dividing line. It has been active since the early days of the insurgency and favours integration into Pakistan.

Harkat-ul-Jehad-I-Islami: Militant outfit, which is pro-Pakistan.

Jaish-e-Mohammad: Literally translated as Army of Mohammed, the Jaish-e-Mohammed is a more recently formed militant group, which emerged in Pakistan. It was founded by the Islamic cleric, Maulana Masood Azhar, to combat Indian rule in Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir: A state of India located in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The state is part of the larger region of Kashmir. It has been the subject of conflict between India and Pakistan since partition in 1947. During the Raj, it was one of the biggest princely states in India ruled, at the time of partition, by Maharaja Hari Singh.

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF): The JKLF was the predominant militant organisation on the Kashmiri side for the first few years of the armed campaign against Indian rule. The JKLF supports an independent Kashmir and is largely secularist in its orientation. It now exists as a political outfit.

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1964): Nehru was the first prime minister of independent India between 1947 and 1964, after being one of the principal leaders of India's movement for independence throughout the 1930s and 1940s. He was noted for his neutral stance in foreign affairs.

Jihadis: From Jihad, which literally means "battle" but is often translated as "holy war." Jihadi or holy warriors are ideologically committed groups from Pakistan or the Pakistani part of Jammu and Kashmir, and in some cases from Afghanistan and other Muslim countries. Considered to be the most radical elements in the conflict in Kashmir, they do not believe in the efficacy of any kind of dialogue or peaceful approach to the problem.

Kargil: Remote mountainous area in western Ladakh. In 1999 it was the site of a serious localised war between India and Pakistan. Intense hostilities ended in July 1999 with the Indian army claiming victory and reclaiming most of the occupied areas on the Indian side of the Line of Control.

Ladakh: Ladakh is a vast high-altitude, sparsely populated region in eastern Kashmir. It remained largely peaceful until the summer of 1999 when a localised war between Indian and Pakistani forces erupted in one of its districts, Kargil.

Lashkar-e-Tayyaba: Literally translated as Army of the Pure, the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba are a militant Islamic organisation committed to the withdrawal of India from Kashmir. It is made up predominantly of non-Kashmiri fighters.

Line of Control: The Line of Control is the de facto border dividing the disputed zones of Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. It marks the cease-fire line agreed upon by Pakistan and India in the Simla Agreement following the Indo-Pakistani war in 1971. Indian-administered Kashmir lies to the east and south and has a population of around nine million. Pakistani or Azad Kashmir occupies the north and west and has a population of around three million.

Maharaja Hari Singh: Maharaja of Kashmir in 1947, at time of independence and partition, he was grandson of Raja Gulab Singh, the Hindu chief who acquired the Kashmir Valley in 1846. After much vacillation, Hari Singh decided to sign the Instrument of Accession to the Indian Union.

National Conference Movement: Most influential political movement among Kashmiris at the time of the partition and independence of Pakistan and India in 1947. It was led by the Kashmiri leader Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah who campaigned for the end of Dogra rule in Kashmir.

Nawaz Sharif (1947-): One of Pakistan's most powerful politicians, Sharif has been prime minister of Pakistan twice: once between 1990 and 1993 and again between 1997 and 1999, when he was overthrown by a military coup. Shortly before his deposition he used his influence to withdraw pro-Pakistani forces from the Indian side of the Line of Control in Kashmir.

Pahadi: Dialect of Punjabi and is the predominant language in the mountain tracts of Poonch and Rajouri.

Raja Gulab Singh: Raja Gulab Singh was the Hindu feudal chief of Jammu who acquired the Kashmir Valley in 1846 creating the region of Jammu and Kashmir largely in the form it exists today. His grandson was Maharajah Hari Singh who signed the Instrument of Accession in 1947 handing control over the state to India.

Rajouri and Poonch: Two districts in the Jammu region with Muslim majority populations. Rajouri has a Muslim population of 65 percent and Poonch has a Muslim majority of 85 percent. These Muslims are largely not Kashmiris, consisting mainly of Gujjars and Bakerwals and Rajput tribes. The predominant language in the mountains of Poonch and Rajouri is not Kashmiri but Pahadi.

Rajputs: Rajputs are mainly Hindus (although there are some Muslim Rajputs). They reside mainly in the southern part of Jammu and Kashmir.

Ramadan: In Islam, this is the holy month of fasting, the ninth month of the Muslim year.

Romeo Force: Elite unit within the Indian army, raised for counter-insurgency operations in the districts of Rajouri and Poonch.

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah (1905 -1982): Charismatic Kashmiri leader of the National Conference Movement. He campaigned for the rights of Kashmir throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Sometimes known as Sher-e-Kashmir, the Lion of Kashmir, he won Kashmir a semi-autonomous status within India, and became Kashmir's first prime minister in 1948.

Simla Agreement: Accord signed by India and Pakistan in the Indian city of Simla in 1972. The agreement demarcated the border currently known as the Line of Control.

Srinagar: Administrative capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Tashkent Agreement: Accord signed by India's prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistan's president Ayub Khan in September 1965, which ended the 22-day war between the two countries. The agreement was brokered by Soviet president Aleksey Kosygin who invited the premiers to Tashkent.

Treaties of Lahore and Amritsar: Through the treaty of Lahore, signed in 1846, the British took Kashmir and surrounding dependencies, forcing the Sikh rulers to cede it and pay an indemnity of 55 million rupees. With the treaty of Amritsar signed very shortly afterwards, the British sold the valley of Kashmir to the Hindu feudal chief Raja Gulab Singh.

Village Defence Committee (VDC):Hindu villagers who have been organised into a makeshift and localised defensive force. A network of these VDCs or self-defence militia exist throughout the Jammu region and consist largely of Hindus and Sikhs and in some cases Muslims.