• Pakistan suspended the 1972 Simla Agreement in response to India’s diplomatic retaliation following the Pahalgam terror attack.

• Pakistan said any move to divert water meant for it under the Indus Water Treaty will be considered an ‘act of war’. It announced the suspension of trade, bilateral accords and airspaces with India.

• The announcements were made after a high-level National Security Commission (NSC) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on April 24 to formulate the country’s response to India's move to suspend the Indus Water Treaty and downgrade diplomatic ties.

• Pakistan also suspended all visas under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) issued to Indian nationals and deemed them cancelled with immediate effect, with the exception of Sikh religious pilgrims.

• Terrorists opened fire in Pahalgam on April 22, killing 26 people, mostly tourists, in the deadliest attack in the Valley since the Pulwama strike in 2019. The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the attack.

Simla Agreement

• The Simla Agreement was signed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on July 2, 1972, in the capital of Himachal Pradesh.

• The agreement was a peace treaty signed by the two nations after the end of the 1971 war, that led to the independence of Bangladesh, which was earlier known as East Pakistan and was part of the territory of Pakistan.

• The Simla Agreement aimed to reverse the consequences of the 1971 war (to bring about withdrawal of troops and an exchange of prisoners of war).

• It was a comprehensive blueprint for good neighbourly relations. Under the agreement, both countries undertook to abjure conflict and confrontation, which had marred relations in the past, and to work towards the establishment of durable peace, friendship and cooperation.

• The agreement contains a set of guiding principles, mutually agreed to by India and Pakistan, which both sides would adhere to while managing relations with each other. 

These emphasise:

i) Respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

ii) Non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.

iii) Respect for each other’s unity and political independence.

iv) Sovereign equality.

v) Abjuring hostile propaganda.

• It also emphasises to uphold the inviolability of the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir, which is the most important confidence-building measure between India and Pakistan, and a key to durable peace.

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