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r/TigersofIndia

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https://www.nytimes.com/1972/11/29/archives/indiapakistani-talks-fail-to-end-kashmir-deadlock.html

The article is behind a paywall, but here is the transcript of the article.

India and Pakistan failed once again today to break the four‐week deadlock over the Kashmir cease‐fire line despite a meeting between the army chiefs of the two countries. Gen S.H.F.J. Manekshaw of India and Gen, Tikka Khan of Pakistan said in a statement is sued after three hours of talks in Lahore that they had decided to “refer the matter back to the Governments.” At issue is a one‐and‐a‐half‐ square‐mile area in southern Kashmir, about 20 miles west of Jammu. Pakistan has been holding this area since the cease‐fire of Dec. 17, which ended the Indian‐Pakistani war that led to the independence of Bangladesh.

Under an agreement signed between the leaders of the two countries in July, the “line of control” in Kashmir was to be drawn along the positions held by the two sides since the war. Each side was also to withdraw from the occupied areas along the international border south of Kashmir. However, after reaching agreement on the rest of the 500‐mile‐long cease‐fire line, local military commanders re ported after holding nine rounds of talks that they were stuck on this small area, called Thako Chak. The area lies in the Indian portion of Kashmir opposite the Pakistani state of Punjab.

The difference is reported to be on principle rather than logistics. Pakistan is contending that under the July agree ment she is entitled to keep this area. India says this place is not an extension of the line of control and as such Pakistan must withdraw her troops be yond the international border. Pakistan apparently feels that withdrawal from even a small area of Kashmir will in effect mean that she is giving up claim over the Himalayan state, whose status has been in dispute since 1947, when the Indian subcontinent was partitioned into India and Pakistan. Military observers here say that the issue has to be resolved at the ministerial level or at a meeting between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.