India contacts Pakistan to avoid escalation of tension

ISLAMABAD: India has contacted Pakistan to convey to the latter that it does not want any further escalation in the post-Uri tension between the two nuclear states.

A credible and highly influential diplomatic source confided to The News here on Friday that a top aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi contacted a key man in Islamabad to convey to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that India does not want to further escalate the tension now.

After days of warmongering, India has now realised that use of any kind of military option against Pakistan will hurt New Delhi more than Pakistan. Washington is also said to have played an important role in communicating to warmongering India to avoid getting into a military conflict with Pakistan.

The source said that the latest contact with Islamabad has been made by New Delhi after what India termed “surgical strikes” conducted across Line of Control in Azad Kashmir. Pakistan has categorically rejected the Indian claim and insisted that it was cross-border fire initiated by India but effectively responded to by the Pakistan military.

This high-level contact by India made after its so-called surgical strikes establishes the notion that the LoC violations by India on Wednesday late night were meant for local consumption and to cool down tempers in India. Within hours of the Uri attack, the Modi government and the Indian media blamed Pakistan for the attack and created war hysteria.

Pakistan believed that either the Uri attack was an Indian false flag operation like Pathankot or the Indian military site was targeted by Kashmiri freedom fighters after the Indian atrocities against the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir crossed all limits. India blamed that those attacked Uri had infiltrated from Pakistan but has shared no evidence with Islamabad so far.

Pakistan’s response after the Uri attack has been mature as Islamabad always emphasized on a negotiated solution on bilateral issues, including Kashmir. However, the Indian side has been beating the war drums.

The Uri attack timing was critical as it raised many eyebrows as after two days of the incident, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was to address the UN General Assembly session to highlight the Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir where more than 100 Kashmiris have been killed and thousands injured during the last few months.

Pakistan from the day one was against any escalation of tensions on borders but the Indian government and its media created war hysteria, which led to the cross-border firing that resulted in the martyrdom of two Pakistani soldiers. There are reports about the killing of several Indian soldiers as a result of Pakistan military’s response to the Indian attack.

India claimed that it was a surgical attack, which hit a few terrorist camps on Pakistani side of LoC. India also claimed that its forces had also killed “scores of terrorists” during the so-called “surgical strikes” but the Pakistan side totally rejected these reports.

The Pakistan Army spokesman, while rejecting the Indian claim of surgical strikes, said, “There had been cross-border fire initiated and conducted by India which is [an] existential phenomenon.”

It was said by the Pakistan Army spokesman that an exchange of fire between Pakistani and Indian LoC troops began at 2:30am on Thursday and continued till 8:00am in the Bhimber, Tatapani, Kel and Lipa sectors in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.