After the second Indo-Pakistani war, in 1965, the UN persuaded both sides to retreat back to the original ceasefire line.
The US-Nato alliance has had to deploy 150, 000 troops and the war has spawned the Pakistani Taliban, which the Pakistani army did not initially see as a danger but now sees as a major threat.
And the war now raging between the Pakistani government and Taliban rebels is affecting the mood among British Muslims.
It does not have an interest in perpetuating a war in which, as it points out, Pakistani soldiers and civilians are victims.
Maybe it was just a bureaucratic error, but the incident would seem to highlight both the level of tension between India and Pakistan, and the limitations of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as an American ally in the Bush administration's war on terror.
More than 90, 000 Pakistani soldiers and officers surrendered to the Indian army and were taken as prisoners of war.
As prime minister during the Gulf war in 1991, Mr Sharif speeded the deployment of 50, 000 Pakistani troops to defend the holy land.
Pakistani security men say it is ridiculous to suspect any complicity: they are at war with al-Qaeda, have arrested 40 of its leaders, and suffered violent attacks, including on ISI offices and the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi.
Why is war breaking out just three months after Mr Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif, his Pakistani counterpart, promised peace?
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war on terror and survived two attempts on his own life last year.
The Pakistani government is keen to show it is cooperating with Britain and the U.S. in the war on terrorism.
And no wonder that the Obama administration is looking for an exit plan from from the war in Afghanistan, which is hard enough to fight without having an exposed flank on the Pakistani border.
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