Pakistan flag missing from Raj Bhavan table on which Simla Accord was signed

The Pakistani flag on the historic table at the Raj Bhavan in Simla, on which the Simla Accord was signed, was conspicuous by its absence on Friday morning, a day after Pakistan suspended the agreement signed in 1972.

The suspension of the accord by Pakistan was in response to retaliatory actions taken by India in the aftermath of the massacre of 26 tourists in Pahalgam in a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.

The pact was signed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistan President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on the intervening night of 2 and 3 July 1972, following Pakistan's December 1971 surrender to end the third Indo-Pak War, which also led to the creation of Bangladesh.

The glossy wooden table on which the agreement was signed is kept in the Kirti Hall of the Himachal Pradesh Raj Bhavan on an elevated red-coloured platform, cordoned off with brass railings with a plate which reads — 'Simla Agreement was signed here on 3-7-1972'.

A photograph of Bhutto signing the agreement and Indira Gandhi sitting beside him is kept on the table, while several other photographs of the India-Pakistan summit of 1972 hang on the wall in the background.

While it is not clear when the Pakistan flag was removed, Raj Bhavan officials confirmed that the flag of the neighbouring country "is not on the table".

A veteran journalist who covered the signing of the agreement told PTI on Friday that the nearly 53-year-old agreement stressed settling all contentious issues bilaterally and maintaining peace at the Line of Control (LoC).

"However, it was frequently violated by Pakistan, and its suspension hardly has any relevance. Even if the flag is removed, there would be no repercussions as the agreement has been flouted by Pakistan several times in the past," he said.

The pact was signed at a time when India was in full command, and agreeing to release 90,000 prisoners of war and returning 13,000 sq. km of land captured by India during the war was "a major blunder", he said.

With PTI inputs