Azad Kashmir means "Free Kashmir" in Urdu, Pakistan's national language. It covers an area of 13,300 km² (5134 miles²), with its capital at Muzaffarabad, and has an estimated population of over 3 million people in the district.

The region is extremely mountainous and includes a significant part of the Himalaya, but does not include Nanga Parbat, the world's seventh highest mountain, which falls within the "Northern Areas".

After the partition of India in 1947 and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, Pakistan obtained possession of parts of Kashmir. Pakistan divided the areas of Kashmir it occupied after 1947 into three parts:

Azad Kashmir, 250 miles in length with width varying from 10 to 40 miles, 13,300 km² (5134 miles&sup2), Northern Areas, a much larger area, 72,496 km² (27,991 mi²), incorporated into Pakistan and administered as a de facto dependency, and A small part, the Trans-Karakoram Tract, of the Northern Areas that was ceded to China by Pakistan in 1963.

The Azad Kashmir is nominally autonomous, with its own elected President, Prime Minister, Legislature, High Court etc.

NOTE: Due to consistent abuses from Indian poster(s) (infact it's one kid with too much time on his hands), I have disabaled the comments feature.