 Banihal Pass At elevation, the Pir Panjal mountains connect Banihal with Qazigund on the other side of the mountains.The Pir Panjal mountain range separates the Kashmir valley in the Indian state Jammu and Kashmir from the outer Himalaya and plains to the south.After the closure of the Murree-Muzaffarabad-Srinagar road on the partition of India in 1947, Banihal pass was the only passage from Jammu to Srinagar after independence until 1956 when Jawahar Tunnel was bored through the Pir Panjal range.