India, Oct. 25 -- India has stitched the Kashmir Valley into its national rail network. Across the Line of Control, the two airports of Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir have gathered dust for two decades.

On 6 June 2025, a Vande Bharat Express pulled out of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra, crossed the Chenab 359 metres above the river, and carried its passengers into Srinagar in about three hours. That journey completed a project India began in 1983. Across the Line of Control, the people of Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) still wait for a train that Islamabad has never built, and for flights that stopped landing in 2006.

Connectivity reveals whether a state treats a region as a frontier to hold or a home to build. By that me...