A day after Pakistan suspended the 1972 Simla Agreement, the Pakistani flag was found to be absent from the iconic table at the Himachal Pradesh Raj Bhavan where the historic pact had been inked.
The wooden table, on which then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistan President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto signed the agreement, is kept at the Kirti Hall within the Raj Bhavan. It rests on a raised red-colored podium, with brass railings surrounding it, having a plaque with the words, “Simla Agreement was signed here on 3-7-1972.”
A photo of Bhutto signing the pact with Indira Gandhi sitting next to him lies on the table, and some more photos from the 1972 India-Pakistan Summit adorn the surrounding walls. But officials at Raj Bhavan told PTI that the Pakistani flag no longer lies on the table. It is still not known whether the flag was removed intentionally or had gone missing earlier.
The 1972 Simla Agreement
The Simla Agreement was signed during the intervening night of July 2 and 3, 1972, between India and Pakistan after the defeat of Pakistan in the 1971 war. India, with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the helm, had a strong upper hand then, having occupied more than 13,000 square kilometers of land and captured 90,000 Pakistani troops as prisoners of war. The agreement was a significant diplomatic step that ultimately resulted in the formation of Bangladesh.
Pakistan’s Suspension of Simla Agreement
In response to India’s firm response to Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack that resulted in the death of 26 individuals, Pakistan struck back by suspending the Simla Agreement. Experts indicate that this act might turn out to be a boomerang against Islamabad.
By putting the accord on hold, Pakistan has unwittingly given India three important strategic benefits: challenging the current validity of the Line of Control (LoC), the optioning open of military action, and the potential for international parties to become involved in the Kashmir conflict—something that Pakistan itself had previously avoided under the bilateral Simla setup.
