Ceasefire Along Line of Control

  • India and Pakistan have agreed to observe the 2003 ceasefire agreements along the Line of Control (LoC) and all other sectors.
  • The decision was taken after discussion between the two Director Generals of Military Operations (DGsMO), Lt Gen Paramjit Singh Sangha, from India, and his Pakistani counterpart, Maj Gen Nauman Zakaria.

2003 CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT

  • The original ceasefire agreement was reached in November 2003, four years after the Kargil War (1999).
  • The 2003 ceasefire agreement remains a milestone as it brought peace along the LoC until 2006. 
  • Between 2003 and 2006, not a single bullet was fired by the jawans of India and Pakistan.
  • However, since 2006, ceasefire violations have become the norm with increasing frequency.

INDIA-PAKISTAN RELATIONS

  • The two sides last connected at the highest level during the Christmas day of 2015, when Indian Prime Minister landed in Lahore for an unannounced visit to meet Pakistani Prime Minister.
  • Dialogue broke down soon thereafter because of the Pathankot airbase attack of 2nd January, 2016, which was followed by the attack at the garrison in Uri and the Indian response with a surgical strike along the border.
  • Bilateral ties continued to nosedive because of the Pulwama terror attack of 14th February, 2019, and the Balakot operation by India.

LINE OF CONTROL

  • The Line of Control (LoC) emerged from the 1948 ceasefire line negotiated by the United Nations (UN) after the Kashmir War. 
  • Initially, it was the UN Ceasefire Line of 1949.
  • It was designated as the LoC in 1972, following the Shimla Agreement between the two countries.
  • LoC is demarcated upto the Siachen Glacier (Point NJ9842)- the world's highest battlefield.
  • LoC is delineated on a map signed by the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of both armies and has the international sanctity of a legal agreement.
  • The length of LOC is around 776-kilometers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hamas V. PLO

The irony in the ongoing conflict is that Hamas, whose founding members were encouraged by Israel in the 1970s and 80s against Yasser Arafat’s secular national movement, has turned out to be Israel’s biggest rival in the Palestinian territories. HAMAS Hamas was established after the first intifada broke out in 1987, as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.  Intifada was the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  The first intifada lasted from 1987 to 1993, and the second began in 2000. As strife between Israel and Palestine continued to soar as the latter resorted to the First Intifada, or uprising, in December 1987, Hamas as an organisation led by Sunni-Islamic fundamentalists, began to take shape.  Hamas could gain immediate and immense popularity within the protesting Palestinians because it was ...
Read more

G7 global corporate Tax Deal

Image
The Group of Seven (G7) countries have backed the proposal to impose a common global corporate tax. It would be aimed at preventing multinational businesses from evading taxes and also squeeze the havens which attract tax evaders due to the low-rate jurisdictions.  The consensus to adopt a common tax rate was reached at the G7 finance ministers' meeting held in Buckingham (London) on June 5.  THE PROPOSAL The tax proposal endorsed by the US, the UK, France and other G7 countries has two parts.  The main part of the proposal states that countries around the world should tax their home companies' overseas profits at a rate of at least 15%.  The companies have multiple branches spread across various jurisdictions, they transfer the bulk of their profit in accounts set up in countries that offer the lowest tax rate.  Often, these tax havens are the Caribbean Islands such as Bahamas or British Virgin Islands, or at times, countries like Ireland where the corp...
Read more

The statue of Swami Vivekananda at the JNU campus

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually unveiled a life-sized statue of Swami Vivekananda at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on November 12. JNUSU (JNU students' union), un response, planned to protest on campus.  They believe the Modi government “openly supported” violence on campuses and is attacking universities with the National Education Policy which will result in fund cuts and privatization of education. FUNDING CONTROVERSY It was on June 30, 2017 that JNU’s Executive Council (EC) first gave approval for the statue.  The administration said it was installing the statue to give the campus a more “pleasing look” as Vivekananda had contributed to “nation building”. The administration remained mum on who was funding the statue and how much it would cost.  Then JNU Students’ Union president N Sai Balaji filed several RTIs to know about the funding. In January 2018, he filed an RTI seeking the total cost of construction of the statue as well as the sour...
Read more