Pakistan after Simla: Siachen, the Lahore Declaration and Kargil

Detail

1. Siachen: the line that stopped short

• Line of Control (LoC): the line that divides the parts of Jammu and Kashmir held by India and by Pakistan. It began as the ceasefire line of the Karachi Agreement (1949). The Simla Agreement (1972) renamed it the LoC.
• Point NJ9842: both the Karachi line and the Simla line were drawn only up to this map point. North of it, the line was never marked. That left the Siachen Glacier area undelimited (no agreed border on the ground).
• NJ9842 lies about 60 km south of the point where India, Pakistan and China meet [3].

• The Siachen Glacier lies between the Saltoro Ridge (a branch of the Karakoram) to the west and the main Karakoram Range to the east [3].

• Why India moved:

• Pakistan practised "cartographic aggression", meaning it drew this unmarked area as its own on maps [2].
• Pakistan also allowed foreign mountaineering expeditions into Siachen to back its claim [2].

• India received intelligence that Pakistan was planning military action in the area [2].

• Operation Meghdoot (13 April 1984): the operation in which India occupied the Siachen Glacier and the passes of the Saltoro Ridge.

• The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force moved together onto the glacier [2].
• The aim was to hold the high ground on the Saltoro Ridge, which overlooks the Nubra Valley in northern Ladakh [2].

• The result: India holds the glacier and the Saltoro heights. Siachen is now the world's highest battlefield.

• Talks that failed: later India-Pakistan talks on demilitarisation (both armies pulling back) produced no agreement.

• Other strains in the 1980s and 1990s:
• Pakistan supported militancy in Punjab, and from 1989 it backed the insurgency in J&K (→ regional-aspirations).
• India and Pakistan both carried out nuclear tests in May 1998 (Section 9). The UN Security Council condemned both sets of tests [9].

2. Peace efforts: people-to-people links

• NCERT's view: Kashmir stayed the main dispute. Even so, both countries encouraged:
• cultural exchanges;
• travel by ordinary citizens;

• economic cooperation.

• NCERT counts the train and bus services between the two countries as a major achievement.

• Samjhauta Express ("samjhauta" means agreement), a train running since 1976 through the Attari-Wagah border. It ran twice a week [6].

• Delhi-Lahore bus (Sada-e-Sarhad), started in February 1999.

• Current status: India removed J&K's special status under Article 370 in August 2019. In response, Pakistan suspended the Samjhauta Express, and the train was later cancelled from both sides [6]. The Delhi-Lahore bus also stopped in 2019. (NCERT: both services shown as running.)

3. The Lahore Declaration (21 February 1999)

• Bus diplomacy: PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee rode the first Delhi-Lahore bus. He was in Lahore on 20-21 February 1999 [4].
• Lahore Declaration: a joint statement signed by Vajpayee and Pakistan's PM Nawaz Sharif. It was the first major peace agreement after both countries became openly nuclear-armed. Its main points:

Commitment	Detail
Peaceful settlement	All issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, to be settled by peaceful means [4]
Dialogue	More intense talks on all issues [4]
Nuclear risk	Immediate steps to reduce the risk of accidental or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons [4]
CBMs	Work out more confidence-building measures (CBMs), meaning steps that build trust and lower the chance of war by mistake [4]
Region	Strengthen SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) [4]

• Memorandum of Understanding (MoU): a less formal agreement, signed the same day by the two Foreign Secretaries. Both sides agreed to:
• set up secure communication channels [5];
• give each other advance notice of ballistic missile flight tests [5];
• take steps to prevent accidental or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons [5];

• stop further nuclear testing [5].

• Simla link: the Lahore process built on the Simla idea that India and Pakistan should settle disputes bilaterally (between themselves, with no third party).

4. The Kargil conflict (May-July 1999)

• What happened: in early 1999, armed men claiming to be mujahideen (fighters in a "holy war") occupied several heights on India's side of the LoC. India suspected that the Pakistan Army was behind them. The sectors were:
• Mashkoh;
• Dras;
• Kaksar;

• Batalik.

• India's response: the army operation to clear the heights was called Operation Vijay.

• Fighting went on through May and June 1999.
• By 26 July 1999, India had recaptured most of the lost points.

• 26 July is now marked every year as Kargil Vijay Diwas ("Kargil Victory Day"). The year 2025 marked 26 years since the victory [7].

• Why the world watched: the war came only one year after the May 1998 nuclear tests. It was the first armed conflict between two nuclear-armed states in South Asia.

• Restraint: the fighting stayed confined to the Kargil area. India chose not to cross the LoC, which won it international support.
• Effect inside Pakistan:
• It was alleged that the Army Chief kept PM Nawaz Sharif in the dark about the operation.

• In October 1999, General Pervez Musharraf removed Sharif in a military coup and took control of the government.

• NCERT's assessment: the near-war was a setback to the peace process, but efforts at peace continued.

5. The Kargil Review Committee and defence reforms

• Kargil Review Committee (KRC), 1999: a committee chaired by strategic expert K. Subrahmanyam.
• It examined the intelligence and surveillance failures that allowed the intrusion to go unnoticed.
• It recommended a review of the whole national security framework, so that defence decisions could be made better [7].

• Its report, From Surprise to Reckoning, was tabled in Parliament in 2000.

• Group of Ministers (GoM) on National Security, 2001: a group of ministers set up on the basis of the KRC report.

• The GoM report had six chapters. Chapter VI had eight recommendations on creating a Chief of Defence Staff [7].

• Reforms that followed:

• Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA): combines military intelligence from the three services.
• Integrated Defence Staff (IDS): a joint staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
• Andaman and Nicobar Command: India's first tri-service command, meaning one command that controls Army, Navy and Air Force units together.

• Strategic Forces Command: manages India's nuclear weapons.

• Chief of Defence Staff (CDS): a four-star officer who coordinates the three services.

• The GoM recommended the post in 2001. It took almost two decades to create.
• The PM announced the post in his Independence Day speech on 15 August 2019 [7].
• The Cabinet Committee on Security approved it on 24 December 2019 [7].
• The CDS is the Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Principal Military Adviser to the government. The CDS also heads the new Department of Military Affairs [8].
• The first CDS was General Bipin Rawat [8].

6. Exercise 7: failure of policy or the world situation?

• The question: India fought three wars in ten years (1962, 1965, 1971). Was that a failure of foreign policy, or a result of the international situation?
• "Failure of policy" view:
• India's trust in friendship with China ("Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai") left it unprepared for 1962.

• Defence spending was neglected.

• "International situation" view:

• The Cold War pushed Pakistan into US-led alliances (SEATO, CENTO).
• A China-Pakistan partnership grew.

• In 1971, the US-China tilt towards Pakistan forced India to sign the Indo-Soviet Treaty (August 1971).

• Link to this section: the same debate returns with Kargil. Lahore showed that India wanted peace, while Kargil showed how fragile peace can be when a neighbour's army acts on its own.

Prelims Hooks

• Operation Meghdoot began on 13 April 1984. The Army and Air Force secured the Siachen Glacier and the Saltoro Ridge, which overlooks the Nubra Valley.
• NJ9842 is the last marked point of the Karachi (1949) and Simla (1972) lines. The area beyond it, including Siachen, was left undelimited.
• The Lahore Declaration was signed on 21 February 1999 by Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif. The companion MoU was signed by the Foreign Secretaries and covered advance notice of ballistic missile tests.
• Kargil sectors: Mashkoh, Dras, Kaksar and Batalik. Trap: Siachen was not a Kargil sector.
• Operation Vijay was the Army's operation in Kargil. Kargil Vijay Diwas is on 26 July.
• The Kargil Review Committee was chaired by K. Subrahmanyam, and its report was From Surprise to Reckoning. Trap: the KRC did not create the CDS; the 2001 GoM recommended it.
• The CDS was approved by the CCS on 24 December 2019. The CDS is Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and heads the Department of Military Affairs.
• The Andaman and Nicobar Command is India's first tri-service (theatre) command, and the Strategic Forces Command manages nuclear forces. Both came out of the post-Kargil reforms.
• Samjhauta Express (from 1976, through Attari-Wagah) was suspended by Pakistan in 2019, after Article 370 was revoked.

Mains Points

• Peace and war in the same year (GS-II): in 1999, Lahore and Kargil came only three months apart. Civilian-led peace efforts can fail when the other side's army does not support them. This argues for dialogue that also involves Pakistan's real power centres, backed by strong deterrence.
• Nuclear deterrence and limited war (GS-II/GS-III): Kargil showed that a limited conventional war is possible even between nuclear-armed states. India's choice not to cross the LoC kept the conflict limited and won global support. This set the pattern of "responsible nuclear power" in Indian diplomacy.
• Intelligence and defence reform (GS-III): the KRC and the GoM exposed failures in intelligence and in coordination between the services. The CDS came 18 years after the GoM recommended it. This is a case study in slow institutional reform; theatre commands are still being debated.
• Siachen's strategic value vs its cost (GS-II): holding the Saltoro heights shuts off Pakistan-China linkage in the north, but troops pay a heavy price in harsh weather. Demilitarisation talks failed because India wanted the present positions recorded on a map before any pullback.