Foreign Policy Blunder III: The Tashkent Agreement and Return of Haji Pir Pass

In words of one of our heroes, Gen. J F R Jacobs: In 1965, Field Marshal Ayub Khan took a gamble by infiltrating a large number of insurgents into Jammu and Kashmir as part of Operation Gibraltar. These infiltrators were dealt with effectively dealt by the Indian army, but these events led to a full scale war, which saw the largest tank battle since World War II at Khem Karan, where the Pakistan armoured forces were dealt a crippling blow.

This sounds very much like Musharraf's Kargil misadventure. Of course in case of Operation Gibraltar, the Pakistanis claimed victory. In Kargil they could not even claim their dead. Honor and shame are alien words to them. Anyway, pressured by international forces, a meeting was arranged in Tashkent, which was moderated by Premier Alexei Kosygin. Lal Bahadur Shastri and Muhammad Ayub Khan represented India and Pakistan respectively. The terms of this declaration sounded like platitudes. However, out of good faith, Haji Pir Pass, which was won by us, was returned to the Pakistanis. This was a huge blunder by Shastri's government who, in words of Gen Jacobs: displayed competence and guts right upto the last, he was a great man.

To emphasize the importance of this piece of real estate, let me talk about G [...]


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