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All about disputed Sir Creek, where PM Modi celebrated Diwali with jawans
Sir Creek is a disputed territory between India & Pakistan. It is one of the largest fishing grounds in Asia and is also believed to hold unexplored resources.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated Diwali on Thursday with personnel from the Border Security Force (BSF), Army, Navy, and Air Force near the Indo-Pak border in Gujarat's Kutch district. PM Modi reached the disputed Sir Creek area and distributed sweets to jawans.
All about Sir Creek
Sir Creek is a 96-km-long tidal estuary between Gujarat's Rann of Kutch and Pakistan. Named after a British representative, it extends into the Arabian Sea and roughly divides the Sindh province of Pakistan from the Kutch region of Gujarat. According to the officials, the terrain is extremely challenging as summer days are extremely hot and winter nights are extremely cold.
The area is disputed between India and Pakistan due to varying interpretations of maritime boundary lines. Sir Creek is considered one of the largest fishing grounds in the subcontinent and is believed to hold unexplored oil and gas resources.
What is the dispute?
The dispute traces its origins to the provisions of the 1914 Bombay government resolution, which sought to demarcate the area between its Sindh and Kutch divisions.
Paragraph 9 of the agreement states that the boundary lies “to the east of the Creek,” implying that the creek belonged to Sindh, now part of Pakistan. Post-partition in 1947, Sindh and Kutch divisions became part of two countries, India and Pakistan. Thus, the dispute needs to be settled according to international principles of maritime law, called the Thalweg principle.
According to the Thalweg principle, a boundary can be fixed only in the middle of the navigable channel. This meant the area had to be divided between India and Pakistan.
Also read | PM Modi celebrates Diwali with jawans at Sir Creek Border with Pak
Pakistan claimed that Sir Creek was not navigable, so the dispute could not be settled according to the Thalweg principle. However, India cites that the area remains navigable during high tide, and the boundary should be decided according to international norms.
India has also cited Paragraph 10 of the 1914 Bombay government resolution, which states that Sir Creek is navigable “most of the year.” New Delhi has consistently used this paragraph to argue that the boundary needs to be fixed in the middle of the creek.
Talks over Sir Creek
After the Indo-Pak war in 1965, Prime Minister Harold Wilson persuaded the two countries to set up a tribunal to resolve the dispute. The tribunal verdict granted roughly 10% of the area to Pakistan. Till 2012, 12 rounds of talks have been held over the issue, and the two countries have not reached a resolution.
