- On 02 July 1972, Shimla Agreement was signed between Indira Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto at Shimla of Himachal Pradesh.
- Shimla Agreement or Shimla Accord was a treaty that laid out the principles which would govern the future bilateral relations between the two countries.
- It followed from the Bangladesh Liberation war in 1971 that led to the independence of Bangladesh, which was earlier known as East Pakistan and was part of the territory of Pakistan.
- India entered the war as an ally of Bangladesh which transformed the war into an Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
- The accord had contained the steps which were to be taken to ensure the normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan.
- The agreement converted the cease-fire line of 17 December 1971 into the Line of Control (LOC) between India and Pakistan.
- It was agreed that “neither side shall seek to alter it unilaterally, irrespective of mutual differences and legal interpretations”.
- The treaty also had some other terms like renewing communications, telegraph, postal, airline relations, etc. It also talked about having exchanges in the field of culture and science.
- India released 93000 Pakistani prisoners of war (POWs) who were captured after the Bangladesh war.
- Pakistan did not keep its word and continue to unsettle India on the Kashmir issue. There was a severe war-like situation between both countries around Kargil in 1999.
In Operation Meghdoot of 1984, India seized all of the inhospitable Siachen Glacier region where the frontier had been not defined in the agreement, this was considered as a violation of the Simla Agreement by Pakistan.
