Indo-Pakistani War of 1965

In August 1965 Pakistan sent thousands of armed infiltrators into Indian Kashmir in Operation Gibraltar, hoping to stir a rebellion. It failed, and India responded by taking the Haji Pir pass. On September 1 Pakistan attacked at Chhamb with armour in Operation Grand Slam, and on September 6 the Indian army crossed the international border in the Punjab, heading for Lahore. There were big tank battles, at Asal Uttar, where many Pakistani American-made Patton tanks were destroyed, and at Chawinda. A UN-backed ceasefire took effect on September 23.²

Pakistan's president Ayub Khan, encouraged by his foreign minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, believed India was weakened after the war with China in 1962 and that a quick blow could force a settlement on Kashmir. The Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin hosted talks in Tashkent, and on January 10, 1966 Ayub Khan and the Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri agreed to withdraw to the earlier lines. Shastri died of a heart attack the next day. Many in Pakistan felt they had been cheated of a victory at the table, and Bhutto left the government, creating the Pakistan People's Party. In East Pakistan, Bengalis noticed that the army had left their wing undefended, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Six Points of 1966 demanded autonomy.¹²³