The full form of LoC is Line of Control. It is a line separating India’s Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK). The line cuts through a highly mountainous region in the Kashmir region of India. This article discusses LoC full form, its history and its facts.
LoC full form, as we have already told, is is Line of Control. Line of Control is a line that separates Pakistan-occupied Kashmir from Indian Administered Kashmir. The LoC acts as the de-facto border between India and Pakistan, and, as a result, a heavy presence of Military can be seen on both sides of the border, making it a high-security area. The LoC is also a point of tension between India, Pakistan and China, and has been so since 1949.
The LoC is around a 724-kilometre-long line stretching from Jammu district to NJ9842, the northernmost point of the LoC. Beyond the NJ9842 lies the Siachen Glacier, which is the second-longest glacier in the world’s non-polar areas. It is extremely cold and the temperature can go as low as –50°C in winter.
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The following are 10 points describing LoC full form and facts
Now that you know LoC Full Form, we would like to tell you about the History of LoC.
The British ruled over India for more than 200 years. During this period, they exploited Indians and drained India’s wealth to England. In 1947, they finally left, but not without dividing India into two separate countries. Hence, the country of Pakistan was born in 1947.
The LoC came into existence in 1949 when it was called the cease-fire line. The cease-fire line was a result of the Karachi Agreement of 1949 between India and Pakistan, the two newly independent countries. The Agreement ended the First Indo-Pak War (1947- 48), also known as the First Kashmir War, which was started by Pakistan due to the wish of its leaders to capture and occupy the then-Indian province of Jammu and Kashmir.
Despite the cease-fire agreement, Kashmir remained a bone of contention between the two countries. Another war broke out in 1965 which was once again started by Pakistan. This time, however, India reacted in kind. After being invaded by Pakistan, India invaded Pakistan and almost took Lahore, which was its largest city at the time. The Pakistani land that India captured was real estate. Pakistan, on the other hand, managed to capture India’s land which was mostly desert (in India’s province of Rajasthan). As a result of the war, the Tashkent Agreement was signed in 1966 in Tashkent, USSR (Now in Uzbekistan).
A major turning point came in 1971 when Pakistan was dismembered by India and a new country Bangladesh was created. The episode took place after India defeated Pakistan in the Third Indo-Pakistan War, also known as Bangladesh Liberation War (1971). The Kashmir region was also involved in the fighting between the two countries. As the Indian side won the war, the question of the cease-fire line again came up.
In 1972, the Simla Agreement was signed between India and Pakistan in which both nations agreed to turn the cease-fire line into a “Line of Control” (LoC) and observe it as a de facto border that armed conflict should not cross. Any side was prohibited to unilaterally alter the line as per the agreement.
In 1984, the conflict flared up again. Due to the Afgan war taking place in the 1980s, India took control of the Siachin Glacier along the LoC to disallow Pakistan to be in a favourable position. Operation Meghdoot (1984) was conducted for the takeover. This heightened the tensions between the two countries. In June 1987, another operation named Operation Rajiv was conducted to capture a high point along the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) on the Siachen Glacier.
The last major flare took place in 1999. The fighting began when Pakistani troops, posing as Kashmiri militants, infiltrated key locations on the Indian side of the Line of Control. Most of the sites on the Indian side of the LoC were retaken by the Indian Army, which was later assisted by the Indian Air Force. The Kargil War was not a full-fledged war since by 1998, both India and Pakistan had become Nuclear-armed countries.
Since the 1980s, terrorists from Pakistan have repeatedly infiltrated through the LoC into India. The porous nature of LoC, due to the mountainous terrain, has resulted in a large number of infiltrators crossing the border easily. Hence, the Government of India has constructed a fence along the LoC. The fence runs through around 550 km of the 750 km long LoC. Along the rest of around 200 km of LoC, due to the uneven terrain, a fence cannot be constructed. The LoC is also a region that witnesses many cease-fire violations.
The LoC is often confused with the LAC; however, both are different. LoC full form is Line of Control whereas LAC full form is Line of Actual Control. LAC is a cease-fire line separating the Indian Union Territory of Ladakh and Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin. The line can be traced back to the Sino-Indian War of 1962, in which China occupied parts of the then-Indian province of Jammu and Kashmir.
Following the Sino-Indian War in 1962, the term “line of real control” initially only applied to the boundary in the western sector. However, by the 1990s, it had expanded to include the whole de facto border.
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