SINGAPORE: Pakistan’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza said that Pakistan and India are close to reducing the troop build-up along their border to levels before conflict erupted between the nuclear-armed neighbours this month.
“We have almost come back to the pre-22nd April situation. we are approaching that, or we must have approached that by now,” said Mirza during an interview with a foreign news agency. Sahir is the most senior Pakistani military official to speak publicly since the conflict.
India’s Ministry of Defence and the office of the Indian Chief of Defence Staff did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the remarks by Mirza. Mirza, who is in Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue forum, said there was no move towards nuclear weapons during this conflict, however, it was a dangerous situation. “Nothing happened this time,” he said. “But you can’t rule out any strategic miscalculation at any time, because when the crisis is on, the responses are different.”
He also said the risk of escalation in the future had increased since the fighting this time was not limited to the disputed territory of Kashmir, the scenic region in the Himalayas that both nations rule in part but claim in full. The two sides attacked military installations in their mainlands, but neither has acknowledged any serious damage. It is important to mention here that fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery were used in four days of clashes, their worst fighting in decades, before a ceasefire was announced.
The spark for the latest fighting between the old enemies was an April 22 attack in Indian Kashmir that killed 26 people, most of them tourists. New Delhi blamed the incident on “terrorists” backed by Pakistan, a charge denied by Islamabad. On May 7, India launched missiles at innocent Pakistani citizens and mosques. In response, Pakistan targeted military installations in Pathan Kot and also in indian held Kashmir.
Read also: Indian defence experts admit defeat, acknowledge aggression against Pakistan
