Islamabad:
High military officials in Pakistan and India held their first round of talks on Monday through a hotline and agreed to keep the cease-fire agreed on Saturday after the five days of war.
As part of the cease-fire agreement, negotiated by the United States, the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of the Pakistani Major-General Kashif Abdullah and his Indian counterpart, the LT Gen Rajiv Ghai, spoke.
“The questions related to the continuation of the commitment that the two parties must not draw a single blow or initiate all aggressive and hostile action against each other were discussed,” said the Indian army. “It has also been agreed that the two parties envisage immediate measures to ensure the reduction of border and advanced areas troops,” he added.
Far from the rhetoric of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first speech after the conflict, the Indian military leader prompted to maintain the ceasefire. Pakistan, on the other hand, confirmed the contact but provided no details. The officials said the two parties would have a second round in the next 48 hours.
The United States ceasefire between the two nuclear powers remained intact overnight. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while announcing the details of the ceasefire, said the two parties would start talks about a wider range of questions in a neutral place.
Modi was referring to talks on Monday, but insisted that they would focus on “terrorism” and “part of the cashmere which was under the control of Pakistan” – a reference to Azad Jammu Cashmere (AJK). The declaration meant that India had accepted the talks, while Modi focus on terrorism and AJK was an attempt to appease its domestic audience.
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said the question of cashmere and Industes Waters Treaty (IWT) is on the priority list of Pakistan, whenever talks with India take place.
A few hours before Modi’s speech, where he declared that “the Sindoor operation” was only suspended, the media wing of the Pakistani army, the inter-service public relations (ISPR), published a statement, warning India that any future attempt to threaten the territorial integrity of Pakistan would invoke an advantageous response.
The last climbing between India and Pakistan began on April 22 when 26 people were killed in Jammu and Kashmir (iiojk) of Jammu-Cachemire (Iiojk) of Pahalgam. Without providing any evidence, India immediately blamed Pakistan for the attack.
India also took hostile measures on April 23, holding the 65-year-old IWT, canceling the visas of Pakistani citizens, closing the border crossing of Wagah-Attari, closing the Pakistani High Commissioner to New Delhi and considerably reducing diplomatic force to the missions of the other.
Pakistan denied the Indian accusation without proof. However, the National Security Committee (NSC) has also taken countermeasures, in particular by interrupting any trade with India, by closing the Pakistani airspace for Indian and others.
The situation degenerated further in the short hours of May 7, when missiles hit six cities in Punjab and AJK, destroying several mosques. Dozens of innocent civilians, including women and the elderly, were martyred during the night attack.
The Pakistani forces presented an invited but very energetic response to the enemy, slaughtering their five war aircraft, including three gusts – the pride of the Indian Air Force. During the following two days, India sent swarms of Israeli manufacturing drones which were also slaughtered by the Pakistani army.
In even further on Saturday hours, India pulled missiles from certain Pakistani air bases. A few hours later, Pakistan launched Operation Bunyanum Marsoos, destroying and damaging 26 Indian military installations – missile stocks, bases and other targets.
In the evening, US President Donald Trump announced that after diplomacy overnight, Pakistan and India had accepted a cease-fire. A few minutes later, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Ishaq Dar, confirmed the development, then the Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Trump said on Monday that the United States’s intervention prevented a “bad nuclear war” between the two nuclear arms neighbors, adding that the United States was ready to help the two counties following the cease-fire agreement that his administration helped broker.
“We have stopped a nuclear conflict. I think it could have been a bad nuclear war, millions of people could have been killed. So I am very proud of that,” Trump told the White House. “Trade is a great reason they have stopped fighting,” Trump added.
(With the contribution of agencies)
