Washington, Nov 30: The 1999 Kargil conflict sealed the fate of the Line of Control (LoC) as the de facto border between Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, the "sanctity" of which will be maintained in times to come, according to a new book published here.

By implication, the Kargil conflict in the summer of 1999 sealed the fate of Kashmir from a Pakistani point of view.

The book – Four Crises and a Peace Process – jointly authored by Stephen P Cohen, Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema and PR Chari and published by the Brookings Institution, says in its chapter on Kargil: "Finally, as a result of Kargil, the LoC came to be treated as an inviolable boundary between the two countries.

The US made this clear in the short Clinton-Sharif joint statement, which emphasised that ‘it was vital for the peace of South Asia that the LoC in Kashmir be respected by both parries’.

The joint statement further said and that ‘concrete steps are taken for the restoration of the LoC in accordance with the Simla Agreement.’

Significantly, the three-paragraph statement refers to the fact that the LoC would be ‘respected’, as would its ‘sanctity’ and that steps would be taken towards its ‘restoration’.

Furthermore, the Simla Agreement creating the LoC was thereby strengthened, which should discourage future attempts to alter its contours, the Daily Times reported.

Also, the circumspection shown by both countries in not extending the Kargil conflict to other areas for various reasons underlined, inadvertently perhaps, the sanctity of the LoC and cast doubt on Pakistan’s argument that it was a temporary border that could be redrawn, the book said. (ANI)