Pakistan surrenders to India within a month of Indian intervention in the war to suppress East Pakistan

With the end of the war between Pakistan and India, East Pakistan becomes independent as Bangladesh

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto takes over as president of Pakistan, now consisting only of its western half

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returns from prison in West Pakistan to become prime minister of the newly independent state of Bangladesh

Zia ul-Haq, the Chief of Army Staff, takes power in a bloodless coup against the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto

Ex-president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is executed in Pakistan for allegedly authorizing the murder of a political opponent

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerges in India from previous Hindu nationalist groups and wins the first of several general ellections in 1996

Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children uses the moment of India's independence to launch an adventure in magic realism

The Tamil Tigers launch a civil war against the Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka

Sikh rebels, demanding an independent Punjab, seize the Golden Temple in Amritsar

Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi uses the army to dislodge militant Sikhs occupying the Golden Temple in Amritsar

Indira Gandhi is assassinated in Delhi by members of her Sikh bodyguard, in retaliation for the desecration of the Golden Temple

Rajiv Gandhi succeeds his mother as leader of the Congress party and prime minister of India

More than 2000 die in the Indian city of Bhopal when toxic gas escapes from a Union Carbide plant

35-year-old Benazir Bhutto, daughter of the executed president, leads a coalition government in Pakistan

Benazir Bhutto's government is dismissed on corruption charges and her party loses the resulting elections

Rajiv Gandhi is killed near Chennai, during an election campaign, by a suicide bomber on behalf of Tamil militants

Vikram Seth publishes his novel A Suitable Boy, a family saga in post-independence India

After only three years in opposition, Benazir Bhutto wins a second term as prime minister of Pakistan

Benazir Bhutto is dismissed from government in Pakistan for a second time, again on corruption charges

Indian author Arundhati Roy publishes her first novel, The God of Small Things

A Pakistani general, Pervez Musharraf, takes power in a military coup

An earthquake kills about 20,000 people in the region of Bhuj in the Indian state of Gujarat

Crown Prince Dipendra kills nine members of his own royal family at the court of Nepal

An earthquake kills more than 70,000 people in inaccessible regions near Muzaffarabad in the Pakistan part of Kashmir