Daily Times

The seventeen-day war in 1965 caused thousands of casualties on both sides and witnessed the largest engagement of armoured vehicles and the largest tank battle since World War II. The hostilities between the two countries ended after a ceasefire was declared following diplomatic intervention by the Soviet Union and USA.

On September 22, 1965Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s addressed the United Nation’s Security Council:

We have always known that India is determined to annihilate Pakistan. Jammu and Kashmir was not now and had never been an integral part of India. The people of Jammu and Kashmir are part of the people of Pakistan in blood, in flesh, in life, in culture, in geography, in history… in every form. I swear, “We will wage a war for a thousand years, a war of defence.”

“The world must know that the 100 million people of Pakistan will never abandon their pledge and promises. Indians may abandon their pledges and promises; we shall never abandon ours. We shall fight for the honour; we are not aggressors; we are the victim of aggression.”

“The whole world believes in the right of self-determination. Must it be denied to the people of Jammu and Kashmir merely because power must prevail over principles? Power shall never prevail over principles… The will and spirit of our people can never be destroyed.”

The Shimla Accord returned the 5,000 square miles taken from Pakistan by India. The accord also paved the way for the return of 93,000 prisoners of war without the humiliation of the war trials

The Security Council must now address itself to the heart of the problem, the future of Kashmir. It can no longer make a plaything or a toy out of five million people.

On October, 25, 1965, Bhutto addressed the Security Council on Kashmir again. It was Bhutto’s final speech prior to the Tashkent meeting in January, 1966:

“We are fortified by the faith that, despite India’s arrogance and obduracy, despite its flouting all canons of civilised conduct, despite the armed might which it deploys against Kashmir’s helpless people, this long drawn-out tragedy can end only in the victory of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and in the vindication of the honourable position which our country and our people have taken. And we tell you, we shall face complete extermination; we shall face destruction; we shall never dishonour our pledge. We shall fight by the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and we shall honour that pledge irrespective of what the Security Council does, irrespective of what the great powers do. This is a part of our faith; it is ingrained and enshrined in our very civilisation. That is why we are able to face aggression from a country six times our size. We stand for a righteous cause; that is why we are brave. And finally and ultimately, whatever you do, we must triumph; we must succeed because justice is with us.”

Bhutto flew to attend the peace conference in January 1966, to which Premier Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin had invited President Ayub Khan and Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. Habibullah Shahabuddin and his secretary, Altaf Gohar accompanied Field Marshal Ayub and Foreign Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

Altaf Gohar typed a two-page draft agreement to be signed by President Ayub and PM Shastri. But at the last minute, PM Shastri requested to add a “no war” clause. President Ayub wrote with his own hands on the typed draft that Pakistan would renounce the use of force in settling disputes with India. Bhutto went mad when he read the insert in the pages.Bhutto again took the hard line on negotiating with India, his absolute refusal to give up Kashmir. India’s army was waiting in Punjab to move against Lahore if the talks broke down. Finally on January, 10, 1966 President Ayub and PM Shastri signed a declaration stating their firm resolve to restore peaceful relations between their countries. All troops to be withdrawn by both countries to position they had held prior to August 5, 1965.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, addressed the Pakistan National Assembly in March 1966 after prolonged attacks against the regime for its mishandling of the war said: “Let us look at the history: In 1939, Britain and France declared war against Germany because in that respect it was a commitment to support the frontiers of Poland. A commitment that needs to be honoured. What really happened in Korea? It’s a war of liberation. Can Kashmir be exclusion; should we not be committed to the 5 million people of Jammu and Kashmir? The statement, that the future of 50 million people of East Pakistan was jeopardised for 5 million people of Jammu and Kashmir is a bankrupt and immoral argument. Then you will say, let Balochistan go, let Sindh go. Propaganda means vilification, propaganda means slander. No respectable and self-respecting country would like to indulge in propaganda. We do not indulge in propaganda. This is not our policy. Only as far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, as far as the liberation is concerned, as far as the question of justice is concerned we are not precluded from espousing and propagating these causes.I tell you we are true. There can be no force, no strength greater than truth. Truth itself is on our side. India will have to abandon its colony in Jammu and Kashmir.”

Three days after the speech, Bhutto was ordered to resign as General Secretary of President Ayub’s Muslim League, and in mid-June Bhutto tendered his resignation as Foreign Minister of Pakistan as well.

After about five years of Tashkent Declaration military action was initiated in East Pakistan on March 25, 1971. Dacca fell to Indian Army, and Bangladesh was formed as an independent State. An agreement was signed on July 2, 1972. The agreement converted the cease-fire line of 17 December 1971 into the Line of Control (LOC) between India and Pakistan and it was agreed that “neither side shall seek to alter it unilaterally, irrespective of mutual differences and legal interpretations”.It was stipulated that all issues on which there might be disputes or difference of opinion including Jammu and Kashmir would be settled by mutual consolation and discussion without intervention of any third party including United Nations and without any recourse of force. The Shimla Accord returned the 5,000 square miles taken from Pakistan by India. The accord also paved the way for the return of 93,000 prisoners of war without the humiliation of the war trials. However the agreement did not prevent the relationship between the two countries from deteriorating to the point of armed conflict, most recently in the Kargil War of 1999. And in 1984 India seized the Siachen Glacier region where the frontier had been clearly not defined in the agreement; this was considered as a violation of the Shimla Agreement by Pakistan.

On October 30, 2019 the state was formally taken under direct federal control and split into the territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, bringing an end to decades of semi-autonomous rule. It was the implementation of a decision first made by Modi’s government On 5 August 2019, when legislation was rushed through the Indian parliament to approve the end of article 370 of the constitution, which for over 70 years has guaranteed special privileges to the predominately Muslim region.

The writer is a traveller and freelance writer based in UK. He has previously written for @the_nation @Dawn_com @DunyaNews @TheAsians He can be contacted on Twitter @SyedIHusain