Pakistan suspends the 1972 Simla Agreement: What is the agreement all about?

Pakistan suspends Simla Agreement after Pahalgam terror attack, a significant peace treaty post 1971 war between India and Pakistan. Here’s all you need to know about the Simla Agreement.

Pakistan has suspended the 1972 Simla Agreement as part of a series of retaliatory actions in response to India’s reaction to the Pahalgam terror attack, which left 26 dead. The Simla Agreement was a significant peace treaty signed after the 1971 India-Pakistan war.

The Simla Agreement was aimed at promoting friendly and harmonious relationships and establishing peace between India and Pakistan. The accord signed on July 2, 1972, by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistan President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, ended in the creation of Bangladesh by splitting from Pakistan after India’s intervention. This helped in creating a new era of cordial relations between India and Pakistan post the 1971 war.

Under the agreement, India and Pakistan established the Line of Control (LoC), previously called the Ceasefire Line, the border that divides India and Pakistan. They also committed to settling their differences through bilateral negotiations.

The agreement states: “The Government of India and the Government of Pakistan are resolved that the two countries put an end to the conflict and confrontation that have hitherto marred their relations and work for the promotion of a friendly arid harmonious relationship and the establishment of durable peace in the sub-continent, so that both countries may henceforth devote their resources and energies to the pressing task of advancing the welfare of their peoples.”

It was decided that the two countries are resolved “to settle their differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations or by any other peaceful means mutually agreed upon between them.”

India succeeded in persuading Pakistan to change the nomenclature of the ceasefire line to the Line of Control (LoC), thus delinking it from the UN-imposed 1949 ceasefire line and highlighting that Kashmir was now a purely bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.

India returned around 13,000 km² of land taken in battle on the western border but retained some strategic areas to create lasting peace.