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– ‘Long live Pakistan’ –
The skies above the capital were later streaked with multicoloured smoke as the air force hosted Pakistan’s largest air show to date.
Fighter jets criss-crossed over the leafy capital in aerobatic manoeuvres as thousands packed shoulder-to-shoulder applauded from a park below. Planes from close allies Saudi Arabia and Turkey also took part.
In Lahore students cruised through the eastern city’s streets on motorbikes waving flags and screaming “Long live Pakistan!”
Up north in the Swat valley near the restive border with Afghanistan celebrations were more subdued, with events at schools cancelled due to “prevailing law and order” issues.
In nearby Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Christians held special services at a church and freed doves to mark the holiday.
“Four years back my father and brother died in this church in a suicide attack, but I am still here praying for my beloved country,” schoolteacher Neelam Anwar told AFP.
In August 1947 the British Raj was dismantled with the subcontinent divided into two independent states — Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Millions were uprooted in one of the largest mass migrations in history, with experts estimating at least one million died in the communal violence unleashed by partition.
The carnage sowed the seeds of the acrimony that led to three wars, and generations later this defining moment in the subcontinent’s history is still polarised by nationalism and rancour.
The countries still wrangle over a large part of their shared border, especially in disputed Kashmir. They even recognise their independence from British rule on separate days, with Pakistan claiming August 14 and India celebrating the following day.
