Operation Gibraltar

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Operation Gibraltar was the codename of a military operation planned and executed by the Pakistan Army in the territory of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in August 1965. The operation's strategy was to covertly cross the Line of Control (LoC) and incite the Muslim-majority Kashmiri population's uprising against the Indian Government. The military leadership believed that a rebellion (sparked by Operation Gibraltar) by the local Kashmiri population against Indian authorities would serve as Pakistan's casus belli against India on the international stage. Pakistan's leadership specifically chose this name to draw a parallel to the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula that was launched from Gibraltar. In August 1965, Pakistani army troops from the Azad Kashmir Regular Force, disguised as locals, entered Jammu and Kashmir from Azad Kashmir with the goal of fomenting an insurgency amongst the Muslim-majority population in the Kashmir Valley. However, the strategy went awry from the outset due to poor coordination, and the infiltrators' presence was soon disclosed to the Indian military. Following the operation and discovery of the Pakistani army infiltration, India responded by deploying more troops in the Kashmir Valley and the Indian Army subsequently began its assault against the Pakistani army infiltrators operating in the region. In August 1965, India crossed the ceasefire line, and attacked the Haji Pir pass inside Pakistan’s Azad Kashmir. Pakistan launched a major offensive named Operation Grand Slam on 1 September 1965 in India's Jammu and Kashmir, sparking the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, which was the first major engagement between the two neighbouring states since the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948. Thus Operation Gibraltar became the immediate cause of Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.