Before the upheaval of 1947, India and Afghanistan shared a thin 106-kilometre border via the Wakhan Corridor and Gilgit region — a quiet connection that centuries of trade and culture recognised. When the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir opted to join India, the strategic Gilgit Agency and Baltistan region faced a coup orchestrated by two British officers in the Gilgit Scouts in November 1947. 

The result: the area was annexed by Pakistan without proper due process, effectively severing the India-Afghanistan land boundary and inserting Pakistan between the two. The Wakhan formal border connection was cut, reconfiguring the geopolitical map of South Asia and dampening an ancient Silk Route corridor. At stake were not just territories, but centuries-old trade routes, diverse local identities, and the strategic Himalayan frontier of the “Great Game”. Today, the region remains disputed, its legacy of treachery, shifting borders and colonial manoeuvres still echoing in modern geopolitics and Indo-Afghan relations.