The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will shortly put into circulation Rs 5 coins to commemorate golden jubilee of Indo-Pak War 1965. The coins will be legal tender as provided in The Coinage Act 2011 and existing coins in this denomination will also continue to be legal tender.
About the Coin:
- The new coin in the obverse will bear Lion Capital of Ashoka Pillar in the centre with ‘Satyamev Jayate’ inscribed below it.
- On the reverse it will bear image of ‘Amar Jawan’ monument along with the design of olive leaves branch on its left and right sides at the center, with the inscription ‘veerata aur balidan’ in Devnagri script on the left upper periphery and ‘VALOUR AND SACRIFICE’ in English on the right upper
- Also, ‘GOLDEN JUBILEE 1965 OPERATIONS’ in English on the lower periphery will be written on the reverse side of the coin.
- Furthermore, the year ‘2015’ will be written below the image of the monument.
Significance of the incident:
The war started in April 1965 following Pakistan’s Operation Gibraltar, which was designed to infiltrate forces into Indian Sovereign territory of Jammu & Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency. Under the dynamic leadership of then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indian Army retaliated with Pakistan’s infiltration by launching a full-scale military attack on West Pakistan. The 17 day war ended following diplomatic intervention by the then Soviet Union (USSR) and United States and the subsequent issuance of the Tashkent Declaration between India and Pakistan but did not mandate victory of either India or Pakistan. However, both countries have claimed victory in this war. This war had witnessed the largest tank battle since World War II.