War Clouds Gather Over South Asia

While preparing an appropriate response to the Pahalgam attack, Islamabad's realignment with Dhaka should be kept in view. Pakistan Army seems concerned of US support for India

- M K BHADRAKUMAR

Here have been incipient signs of late that all is not quiet on the western front, as India and Pakistan marked the third anniversary of the ceasefire understanding of February 25, 2021 on the Line of Control (LOC) and other parts of the international border. True, the ceasefire never really meant any fundamental shift in Pakistan's state policy of sponsoring and waging a proxy war against India. Delhi, nonetheless, has been a stakeholder in the ceasefire agreement for as long as possible, even as its focus was on the Line of Actual Control with China. Pakistan, too, had its hands full, faced with a looming default crisis, internal security issues, and the deepening political instability that followed the overthrow of the Imran Khan government, which was masterminded by the military.

At any rate, the first major breach of the ceasefire agreement came on April 1, when Pakistan Army intruded into Indian territory and opened fire along the LOC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district and our troops "responded effectively in a controlled and calibrated manner" while reaffirming commitment to the ceasefire agreement. That was a deliberate attempt to undermine the remarkable stability that was achieved in the Kashmir zone since 2019 after the abrogation of Article 370 and reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir.