The Agreement between the Government of India and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan regarding Repatriation of Persons was signed in New Delhi on 28 August 1973, in three originals, all equally authentic. Signatories: P. N. Haksar, Special Representative of the Prime Minister of India, and Aziz Ahmed, Minister of State for Defence and Foreign Affairs of Pakistan. The Indian representative, having consulted Dacca, also conveyed the concurrence of the Government of Bangladesh; Bangladesh is not a separate signatory. It is not the Simla Agreement of 2 July 1972, nor the tripartite understanding of 9 April 1974.

The preamble invokes the humanitarian problems resulting from the 1971 conflict and the Joint Indo-Bangladesh Declaration, so that the vast majority of the persons concerned may go to their respective countries. Clause (i): immediate implementation is without prejudice to the parties’ positions on the 195 prisoners of war.

Clauses (ii)–(iv), at a high level, provide for the start of repatriation of Pakistani prisoners of war and civilian internees from India, simultaneously with that of Bangalees in Pakistan and of Pakistanis in Bangladesh, so far as possible at the same pace. Clause (v): Pakistan agrees, initially, to receive a substantial number of non-Bangalees from Bangladesh; any additional number remains to be decided by the prime ministers of Bangladesh and Pakistan, on a basis of sovereign equality.

Clauses (vi)–(vii): during the repatriation period there are to be no trials of the 195, who remain in India pending a later tripartite discussion. Clause (viii) leaves the logistic timetable to the governments, with possible assistance from international humanitarian organisations — without a transport itinerary. Clause (ix): unrestricted access for representatives of the Swiss Federal Government and of the humanitarian organisation entrusted with the task. Clause (x): humane treatment.

India and Pakistan expressly concurred. The official text consulted is that on UN Peacemaker, not the register’s JSTOR article. The April 1974 agreement reopened the file of the 195; it is not the same instrument.

Cover: Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, the presidential palace of the city of signature; we do not claim the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Delhi Agreement; Agreement regarding Repatriation of Persons.