Chronology of the India-Pakistan Conflict
July 26, 1998

Originally Published in the Radiation Bulletin

NEW DELHI, July 26 (Reuters) - Following is a chronology of major events involving arch-rivals India and Pakistan, whose prime ministers meet in Colombo on the sidelines of a regional conference in Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

October 27, 1947: War breaks out between India and Pakistan in disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir barely two months after their independence from Britain.

January 1, 1949: Ceasefire, ordered by United Nations Security Council, takes effect in Kashmir.

September 6-22, 1965: Full-scale India-Pakistan war over Kashmir, which ends after a U.N. call for ceasefire.

January 3, 1966: Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistani President Ayub Khan sign Soviet-mediated peace pact.

December 3-17, 1971: India-Pakistan War over East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) which ends when 90,000 Pakistani troops surrender.

July 2, 1972: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and counterpart Zulfikar Ali Bhutto sign peace accord in Shimla.

Nov 1, 1982: Gandhi and Pakistani President Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq agree to begin talks on a non-aggression treaty.

May 18, 1974: India detonates first nuclear device, but says it is for atomic research and not weapons.

January 20, 1986: Talks between Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries end inconclusively in Islamabad. But both agree on "desirability" of a peace treaty and non-aggression pact.

December 31, 1988: India and Pakistan sign agreement not to attack each other's nuclear facilities.

February 5, 1989: Pakistan army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg says Pakistan has successfully test-fired its first long-range surface-to-surface rockets, named Hatf-1 and Hatf-2.

Feb 6, 1992: Pakistan says it has acquired knowledge to make a nuclear bomb but will not do so.

January 1-3, 1994: Foreign secretaries of the two countries fail to narrow differences on Kashmir. Pakistan rules out more talks unless India stops alleged human rights violations in Kashmir.

August 23, 1994: Then former premier Nawaz Sharif tells rally in Pakistan-ruled Azad (Free) Kashmir, forming a third of Jammu and Kashmir, that Pakistan has an atomic bomb. The government denies this.

January 30, 1996: Pakistani and Indian military officers meet on ceasefire line dividing Kashmir to ease tension after clashes.

June 4, 1996: Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto urges Indian counterpart H.D. Deve Gowda to resume dialogue. Deve Gowda responds positively, but Pakistan drops idea when India holds local elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

March 28-31, 1997: Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries open the first round peace talks in New Delhi, agree to meet again in Islamabad.

April 9: Indian Foreign Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and Pakistani counterpart Gohar Ayub Khan meet in New Delhi. India says several hundred fishermen held by each side will be freed.

May 12: Prime Ministers Inder Kumar Gujral and Nawaz Sharif hold separate talks at SAARC summit in Maldives.

June 19-23: After second round of talks in Islamabad, Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries announce eight-point agenda for peace talks, including Kashmir issue, and say they will set up mechanism to tackle it.

August 14-15 : India and Pakistan mark 50 years of independence.

Aug 26 - India rejects U.S. offer to mediate to end Kashmir border clashes, saying differences should be solved in bilateral talks.

September 18 - Talks between foreign secretaries end in stalemate, but both sides say they will meet again.

Sept 22 - In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif offers to open talks on a non-aggression pact with India, proposing that both nations strike a deal to restrain their nuclear and missile capabilities.

Sept 23 - Sharif meets Gujral for talks in New York which end with no breakthrough.

Oct 26 - Gujral says he is cautiously optimistic that personal friendship with Sharif will help ease tension over Kashmir, but their meet on the fringes of a Commonwealth summit achieves little.

Feb 4, 1998 - Pakistan warns it might review its policy of nuclear restraint if India's new Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government redeems election pledge to make nuclear weapons.

April 6 - Pakistan tests its longest range, 1,500 km (932 mile) Ghauri missile.

May 11 - India conducts three underground nuclear tests in the western desert state of Rajasthan near the border with Pakistan.

May 13 - India conducts two more tests and says its series of tests is complete.

May 14 - U.S. President Bill Clinton says the tests ae a "terrible" mistake and orders sanctions that put more than $20 billion of aid, loans and trade on ice. Japan orders a block on around $1 billion of aid loans, followed by a host of European nations.

May 28 - Pakistan conducts five nuclear tests in response to the Indian blasts. President Clinton, his request to Sharif not to test rebuffed, vows sanctions.

May 30 - Pakistan conducts one more nuclear test and says its series of tests is complete.

June 6 - U.N. Security Council condemns India and Pakistan for carrying out nuclear tests and urges the two nations to stop all nuclear weapons programs.

June 12 - India and Pakistan invite each other for talks, but fail to agree on the agenda.

Group of Eight Nations (G-8) imposes a ban on non-humanitarian loans to India and Pakistan as punishment for their nuclear tests.

June 23- India suggests talks between the two countries' prime ministers at South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

June 24 - Pakistan agrees to talks with India in Colombo.

July 10 - Vajpayee offers Pakistan a no-first-use pact, economic cooperation, and appeals for its participation in joint efforts to achieve universal disarmament. Pakistan in turn says it is ready to sign a non-aggression treaty with India.

July 25 - Vajpayee says in a magazine interview that India is committed to resolving differences with Pakistan through a bilateral dialogue. He also indicates that India could conduct further tests of its Agni intermediate-range missile.