On 6 September 1965, India crossed the international border into Pakistan, marking the official start of the 1965 war. On 01 September, Pakistan had launched Operation Grand Slam to capture Akhnoor in Jammu, which would sever communications and cut off supply routes to Indian troops.
Known as the Second Kashmir War, it saw IAF and PAF aircrafts in combat for the first time since independence and some of the largest tank battles since WWII. The five-week war caused thousands of casualties on both sides and ended in a U.N. mandated ceasefire and the signing of the Tashkent Declaration.
A key operation in the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War was Operation Grand Slam. It refers to a plan to attack the vital Akhnoor Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir constructed in May 1965 by the Pakistan Army. The bridge was the lifeline of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan army thought that this could be used to threaten Jammu which was an important logistics point for the Indian Army. As the stated military goals were not achieved, the operation ended in a defeat for the Pakistan Army, and they were subsequently forced to withdraw following a counterattack by the Indian Army.
The Tashkent Agreement, signed by India’s Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistan’s President Ayub Khan, ended the 17-day August-September 1965 war between Pakistan and India. In Sept. 1965, a cease-fire was secured by the United Nations Security Council. Soviet Premier Aleksey Kosygin, who had invited the parties to Tashkent, negotiated the deal. With this agreement, India and Pakistan announced their firm resolve to restore their countries’ usual and friendly relations. They take into account the achievement of the following targets for the welfare of the people of India and Pakistan.
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