Simla Agreement: No Pak flag in original pics, so it was removed months ago: Official

“The pictures of the signing of the agreement does not have any flag on the table so to restore the originality, the flag was removed,” said a senior official of Raj Bhawan and now, there’s only the Indian flag on the table.

Amid heightened curiosity about Pakistan flag being “removed” from the historic table at Raj Bhawan, on which the Simla Agreement was signed in 1972 between India and Pakistan, Raj Bhawan has clarified that the Pak flag was removed months ago.

Amid heightened curiosity about Pakistan flag being “removed” from the historic table at Raj Bhawan, on which the Simla Agreement was signed in 1972 between India and Pakistan, Raj Bhawan has clarified that the Pak flag was removed months ago. (PTI)

“The pictures of the signing of the agreement does not have any flag on the table so to restore the originality, the flag was removed,” said a senior official of Raj Bhawan and now, there’s only the Indian flag on the table.

The flag was removed from the table a few months back, but the development caught the attention of the outsiders only after Pakistan suspended the Simla Agreement in response to retaliatory actions taken by India in the aftermath of the massacre of 26 tourists in Pahalgam in a brutal terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22.

“The flags of both the country were not there when the Simla Agreement was signed by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistan President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after the 1971 war,” said the official.

“The flags of both the countries were placed on the table much later as a symbolic addition. The Pakistani flag was, however, removed a few months back with the consent of the higher authorities,” said Raj Bhawan official who added that the official residence of the Governor, is a colonial-era building that at time of signing of agreement was known as the Barnes Court, named after a British military officer.

The 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”. The brass railing was also added to cordon off the area to preserve the table. 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.