Military & Aerospace

India's Losses and Gains in Post-Independence Wars - II
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The conflict of 1965 had brought the Pakistani occupation as deep as Jaurian village, but the status quo ante was restored under the Tashkent Agreement.

The question at stake was not the possession of this village but the basic principle of delineation, whether the border west of the Chenab was to be treated differently from that east of the river and why this should be so? The Indian representative insisted that the sanctity of the border had to be maintained equally on both sides of the Chenab. As a result, the talks were deadlocked and stretched to the first week of December.

Troop withdrawal, scheduled to be completed by 20 September as agreed at the officials’ meeting, was delayed till the delineation was completed, although supposedly delinked from this process. It was unwise in the first instance not to link the withdrawal of troops with delineation as India had no other bargaining lever to secure its interest. Why this was not done in the first instance is difficult to understand.

The time for the rabi crop had meanwhile passed, but despite the restive refugee problem Bhutto was sticking to his guns. He said the question was not who should gain control of a tiny village but whether “we are to give up territory without a consideration. This we cannot do. India is the larger and powerful country. It is up to India to give some territory, or to at least compensate us, if we give up something. It has a very big border. Surely, it can make some adjustment.” As for the rest of the normalization process, he boasted that China had vetoed the admission of Bangladesh to the UN the previous September at Pakistan’s bidding. Mrs Gandhi, on the other hand, hoped that a special effort would be made in Pakistan to view the problem of delineation “in the larger perspective of the immense benefit which would accrue to our people.” She regretted that Pakistan’s military representative “apparently regard India’s withdrawal from Pakistan’s territories as of lesser consequence than the dispute they have raised.”

Bhutto insisted that Pakistan would in no circumstances accept the Indian stand that the line separating Jammu from the Punjab province of Pakistan was an international border.

The talks between the two army chiefs, Gen Manekshaw and Gen Tikka Khan, at Lahore on 28 November1 failed to resolve the deadlock. The Simla Agreement had urged in Paragraph 4 Part (1) withdrawal forces by both countries to “the international border in the interest of durable peace.” The question was that of determining the international border so far as it concerned Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistani toehold of the tiny village of Thako Chak in Jammu district, covering an area of 3.5 square kilometres; could not be treated any differently from the portion of the border between the Ravi and the Chenab. It was a question of principle.

Bhutto insisted that Pakistan would in no circumstances accept the Indian stand that the line separating Jammu from the Punjab province of Pakistan was an international border. He asserted that “India was insisting on acceptance of its stand to undermine the position taken by Pakistan that the whole of Kashmir was disputed territory.” It was amazing that while he had conceded the same border as international between the Chenab and the Ravi, since this involved Indian withdrawals from the Pakistani territories of Chicken’s Neck and the Shakargarh bulge, he was not prepared to yield a small village.

After a stalemate of about ten days, the Pakistani side suggested another meeting of the two chiefs, and this was held at Lahore for the second time on 7 December. The Pakistanis at last accepted the Indian stand that Thako Chak formed part of the international border as determined after 1949 and agreed to forgo their claim to it. It was agreed that Pakistani troops should withdraw from Thako Chak, and in return the Indian side agreed to make some adjustments in the line of control as compensation for the loss of this village.

In implementation of the agreement between the two chiefs, Gen Bhagat and Gen Hamid Khan meet for the tenth and last time at Suchetgarh on 11 December2 and jointly signed 19 maps delineating the line of control from Chhamb to Tartok, covering about 800 kilometres. Signing maps and their exchange signified completion of this phase of the Simla Agreement.

This delineation was approved by both governments almost the next day and the stage was now set for withdrawal of troops. A period of five days was allotted to complete adjustments along the line of control and formulate the other modalities of withdrawal from Pakistan-occupied territories. On completion of adjustments in the line of control both sides withdrew from the occupied territories to restore the status quo ante on the international border finally on 20 December 1972,3 almost a year after the Indian unilateral ceasefire of 17 December 1971.

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