Five decades later, India and Pakistan are both still insisting that they won the 1965 war over Jammu and Kashmir, which is generally understood to have ended in a stalemate. Fresh claims continue to turn up, especially as we hit the 50-year mark, but there is no better proof of an inconclusive end than the fact that Kashmir remains as disputed today as it did before that war.

Even without winning though, India did manage a very significant military victory during the war, only to mysteriously surrender it.

On September 1, 1965, Pakistan launched Operation Grand Slam, to attack India with a full blow by launching a counterattack in the town of Akhnoor in Jammu. Since India was already paralyzed from 1962 Indo-China war, Ayub Khan, former President of Pakistan believed that “Hindu morale would not stand more than a couple of hard blows at the right time and place”. As the war was drawn out, across fronts in Kashmir and Punjab, the Indian Army managed to capture the strategic Haji Pir Pass, which reduces the distance from Jammu to Srinagar through Poonch and Uri by over 200 km. In this rare footage from British Pathe, the Indian army is seen passing through the tough terrain of Pooch, finding small land mines en-route. The video also goes on to explain the condition of the small village of Jaurian in Kashmir which was heavily bombed by Pakistan during the war.

The pass is effectively an indent in what was then the line of ceasefire, frequently used by Pakistani infiltrators to make their way into India. Capturing it meant the border had been "straightened out," as this video from the ministry of information and broadcasting shows, and also made travel in the sector much easier.

Meanwhile, the seventeen-day war caused heavy losses from both sides and was called off during Tashkent declaration in 1966. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the former Prime Minister of India and Ayub Khan, the former President of Pakistan signed the declaration after mediation by Russia and America. But there came a twist when Shastri decided to return the Haji Pir pass to Pakistan in return of an undertaking by Pakistan to "abjure war and maintain peace." Many believe that Shastri's decision to return the pass was mysterious (compounded by his sudden death in Tashkent soon after) or that the Russians pressured him into doing it.

Others have claimed that India simply did not fully realise the strategic importance of the pass, which has since been used by many a Pakistani infiltrator. "Our people don't read maps," said Lieutenant General (retired) Ranjit Dyal in 2002, after having led the operation to capture the pass.