LARKANA: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto said here tonight [Feb 24] that the lifting of the 10-year-old United States embargo on the export of military equipment to Pakistan is a contribution to the stability and security of the region in which Pakistan and India are both placed. In a statement the [PM] allayed Indian fears on this count and regretted that the lifting of the embargo was being strangely interpreted in India. Actually India has nothing to fear … he said, and added that Pakistan was determined to pursue the path of normalisation … charted out in the Simla Agreement. — News agencies

[Meanwhile in New Delhi,] Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced … the deal with Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. Under the agreement, the Sheikh will take over the government tomorrow [Feb 25] in occupied Kashmir. Mrs Gandhi also disclosed that the Sheikh had to drop his ongoing demand for a plebiscite to determine the future of Kashmir. Mrs Gandhi released a copy of a letter sent to her by the Sheikh in which he committed himself to keeping Kashmir in India. … Within minutes of her statement Sheikh Abdullah said … that the idea of a plebiscite … had now become irrelevant.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2025