By Muhammad Akbar Notezai
After weeks of clashes, a flag meeting this week sought to defuse tensions.
A meeting between senior military officials from India and Pakistan in Poonch on Monday agreed to work to calm tensions along the Line of Control (LoC), including repeated ceasefire violations. Recent weeks have seen some intense exchanges across the LoC, with India claiming 25 ceasefire violations by Pakistan forces in September alone.
The clashes follow a brief period of optimism following an agreement made on the sidelines of July’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Ufa, Russia, in which the Indian and Pakistani national security advisors (NSAs) were scheduled to meet in New Delhi in late August.
However, the talks were subsequently cancelled amid a row over Kashmir, and Pakistan’s refusal to accept conditions laid down by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. In a late-night statement, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “The scheduled NSA-level talks cannot be held on the basis of the “preconditions” set by India. For its part, India said that Pakistani NSA Sartaj Aziz would not be able to meet Kashmiri separatist Hurriyat leaders during his visit, and would have to restrict the agenda to the issue of terrorism, as was agreed in Ufa.
Since becoming independent in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars. Two of them have been over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.
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