India and Pakistan have taken another subtle step on the troubled road to peace. Its been a roller-coaster ride for two estranged siblings who inspite of a shared history, culture and destiny just don't seem to get together. But they refuse to give up!
August 1947: Jammu and Kashmir ruler Raja Hari Singh decides to join secular India rather than Islamic Pakistan when the subcontinent is partitioned upon freedom from British colonial rule.
October 1947:India and Pakistan go to war in Kashmir.
January 1, 1949:Ceasefire, ordered by the United Nations Security Council, takes effect in Kashmir. Negotiations last till 1954 without resolving the Kashmir problem. Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru meets Pakistan President Ayub Khan in 1960.
1959: China occupies 38,000 sq km Aksai Chin portion of Kashmir's Ladakh region. India says China illegally occupies that area as well as 5,180 sq km of northern Kashmir that Pakistan later ceded to Beijing.
September 6-22, 1965: Full-scale India-Pakistan War over Kashmir begins in the Rann of Kutch, which ends after a UN call for ceasefire.
January 3, 1966: Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistani President Ayub Khan sign Soviet mediated peace pact, known as Tashkent declaration. Both countries pledge continued negotiations and respect for ceasefire conditions.
December 3-17, 1971: India, Pakistan go to war over east Pakistan (later Bangladesh) which ends when 90,000 Pakistani troops surrender. This is after the fighting forces 10 million east Pakistanis to flee to India. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto emerges as leader in Pakistan and Mujib-ur-Rahman in Bangladesh.
July 2, 1972: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Bhutto sign peace accord in Shimla. Pakistan recognises Bangladesh in 1974.
May 18, 1974: India detonates first nuclear device, but says it is for atomic research and not for weapons.
November 1, 1985: Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Pakistani President Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq agree to talks on a non-aggression treaty.
January 20, 1986: Talks between Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries end inconclusively in Islamabad. But both agree on the "desirability" of a 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.
February 1990: India declares federal rule in Kashmir.
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.
March-May 1995: Security forces surround Charar-e-Sharief town, site of holy shrine where insurgents are holed up. Fire guts Charar-e-Sharief shrine. Faced with protests, government abandons plan to hold first state assembly elections since 1987.
August 23, 1994: Then former premier Nawaz Sharif tells a rally in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) 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.
May 1996: First polls in seven years, as part of India's general elections, in Jammu and Kashmir.
June 4, 1996: Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto urges Indian counterpart H D Deve Gowda responds positively, but Pakistan drops idea when India holds assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
March 28-31, 1997: Indian and Pakistan Foreign Secretaries open the first round of 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 Minister I K Gujral and Nawaz Sharif hold separate talks at SAARC summit in Maldives.
June 19-23 1996: After second round of talks in Islamabad, Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries announce eight-point agenda for peace talks.
August 14-15 1997: India and Pakistan mark 50 years of independence.
August 26: India rejects us offer to mediate to end Kashmir border clashes, saying differences should be solved bilaterally.
September 18: Talks between foreign secretaries end in stalemate.
September 22: In a speech to the UN General Assembly, 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.
September 23: Sharif meets Gujral for talks in New York, which end with no breakthrough.
October 26: Gujral says he is cautiously optimistic that his friendship with Sharif will help ease tension over Kashmir, but their meeting on the fringes of a Cmmonwealth summit achieves little.
February 4, 1998: Pakistan warns it might review its policy of nuclear restraint if India's new BJP-led government redeems election pledge to make nuclear weapons.
April 6: Pakistan tests it longest range, 1,500 km Ghauri missile.
May 11: India conducts three underground nuclear tests in Rajasthan.
May 13: India conducts two more tests and says its series of tests is complete.
May 28: Pakistan conducts five nuclear tests in response to the Indian blasts. US President Clinton's request to Sharif not to test rejected, vows sanctions.
May 30: Pakistan conducts one more nuclear test and says its series of tests is complete.
June 12: India and Pakistan invite each other for talks, but fail to agree on the agenda. Group of eight nations imposes a ban on non-humanitarian loans to India and Pakistan.
June 23: India suggests talks between the two countries' Prime Ministers at 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 co-operation, 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 missiles.
February 21, 1999: Vajpayee makes historic trip to Lahore by bus. Signs Lahore declaration which promises to intensify efforts to resolve all issues, including that of J and K. Vajpayee says it was a brief visit but it "considerably helped shrink the distance between Lahore and Delhi", Sharif says the "ice has been broken between the countries".
May 21: India acknowledges intrusions in Kargil and launches first-ever strikes by jets six days later. War ends on July 26.
October 1999: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is overthrown in a coup by Army General Pervez Musharraf on October 12, 1999, just a day before Vajpayee is sworn in for the third time.
November 2000: Vajpayee announces unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir to coincide with Muslim holy month of Ramazan.
February 2001: India extends ceasefire by three months.
May 2001: India calls off its six-month unilateral ceasefire and says it will invite Musharraf for talks.
May 24, 2001: Vajpayee writes to Musharraf and invites him for bilateral talks. Pakistan responds positively.
July 2001: India announces various pre-summit gestures including freeing Pakistani civilians in Indian prisons and easing visa procedures for Pakistanis wanting to travel to India.
July 14, 2001: Musharraf arrives to begin a 3-day visit.
July 16, 2001: Officials from both sides say Musharraf and Vajpayee will sign a joint declaration following their summit, but after hours of wrangling over the wording the talks end without agreement and Musharraf flies home to Islamabad.
August 2001: India imposes an indefinite curfew in Jammu as tension runs high in the city after the massacre of 11 people at a railway station.
October 2001: Militants attack the Kashmiri assembly in Srinagar, leaving 38 people dead. Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah urges the Indian government to launch a crackdown on militant training camps across the border in Pakistan.
December 2001:Unidentified men attack the Indian Parliament. Fourteen people are killed, including the five assailants.
January 2002:The row over the Parliament attack triggers military build-up, diplomatic sanctions, and closure of transport links between the two nations. India's army chief says the nation is ready for war.
May 2002: Tension dramatically increases, prompting an intense international diplomatic effort to avert war between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
October 2002: Four rounds of polls to choose a new state administration conclude in Kashmir.
January 2003:India's Defense Minister says that India could easily absorb a nuclear hit, whereas Pakistan would "cease to exist." Pakistan's information minister retorts that India would learn a 'historic and unforgettable lesson' in such scenario.
May 2, 2003: India, Pakistan decide to send back High Commissioners, restore civil aviation links.
June 30, 2003: Pakistan High Commissioner-designate Aziz Ahmed Khan arrives in India
July 11, 2003: Delhi-Lahore-Delhi bus service restored, a day after the Pakistani envoy presents his credentials.
August 9, 2003: Indian High Commissioner Shivshankar Menon presents his credentials, marking restoration of full diplomatic ties between the two countries.
October 22, 2003: India proposes a series of confidence-building measures -- air and rail links, bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and ferry service between Mumbai and Karachi.
November 23, 2003: Pakistan announces unilateral ceasefire along LoC
November 24, 2003: India welcomes Pakistan's announcement and proposes its extension to Siachen.
January 6, 2004: Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf agree on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Islamabad to commence a composite dialogue process in February to resolve all issue, including Jammu and Kashmir. Musharraf assures Vajpayee that territory under Pakistan's control will not be permitted to support terrorism.
February 18, 2004: Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries meet in Islamabad and finalise details of the composite dialogue process to be held after the Indian general election.
March 11, 2004: Indian cricketers make a 40-day tour of Pakistan, their first in 14 years. About 8,000 Indian fans travelled to Pakistan for the series, and hundreds of millions watched the matches on television. India win both Test and ODI series.
Bureau Report
