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India Provokes A New Flashpoint: The Sir Creek Gambit Against Pakistan

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It was a false flag by all accounts, just like the earlier ones in Pulwama (2019), Mumbai (2008), and the Parliament attack (2001), each orchestrated for sinister objectives, much like Pahalgam in April 2025. The first three served their purpose well, as India successfully rode the tide of the “War on Terror” narrative and exploited it to suppress the voices of the Kashmiris, who continue to demand freedom from Indian occupation, an area internationally recognised as a disputed territory.

But if shame were an entity capable of dying, it would have perished in May 2025, when Indian aggression met with Pakistan’s decisive response. Yet it lives on, shamelessly and undeterred, now manifested in a renewed attempt to manufacture another dispute, this time over Sir Creek, a 96-kilometre (60-mile) tidal estuary lying within the marshlands of the Rann of Kutch. Opening into the Arabian Sea, Sir Creek roughly separates the Indian state of Gujarat from Pakistan’s Sindh province.

The Bombay Government Resolution of 1914 remains the most critical document determining the status of Sir Creek. Signed between the rulers of Kutch (now part of India) and the British Indian province of Sindh (now part of Pakistan), this resolution defined the boundary between the two territories. It explicitly stated that the boundary lies “east of the creek,” clearly implying that the entire western bank of the creek belongs to Sindh, now Pakistan, according to the Thalweg Principle commonly used in international river law. This interpretation grants Pakistan sovereignty extending east of the creek itself.

India, however, insists that the vague map attached to the 1914 Resolution holds overriding authority. That map shows a solid line running east of the creek, which New Delhi claims represents the eastern bank, thereby asserting that the entire creek lies within Indian territory and that the boundary runs along its........

© The Friday Times