Poet Zareef Ahmed Zareef has watched India and Pakistan fight for decades over his homeland, the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. He was born in 1947, the same year India and Pakistan became independent nations and British colonial rule ended.

The neighbors have been in conflict over the disputed border region since their independence and partition in 1947.

Tension between the nuclear-armed nations is soaring. Pakistan's Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to retaliate after Indian strikes killed more than two dozen people.