The spokesman for Pakistan’s Armed Forces has vowed a “swift and assured response” to India if it violates the ceasefire with Pakistan.
Lt General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told Sky News: “Anyone who tries to violate our territory and integrity and sovereignty, our response will be brutal.”
Four days after the truce with India was agreed, General Chaudhry warned that a serious escalation between the two nuclear neighbours would destroy both sides.
“If India thinks that it can carve out a space for war between India and Pakistan, it is actually a recipe for carving out mutual destruction,” he said.
The world, he said, now recognised the extent of the nuclear threat: “Any sane player like the USA understands this absurdity and what the Indians are trying to do here.”
But in a defiant address earlier this week, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, said he would not “bow to nuclear blackmail” by Pakistan.
India’s leader said the recent clashes with its neighbour had established a “new normal” for responding to terrorist attacks and insisted his country would no longer differentiate between terrorists and the government that supports them.
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In the wake of the truce, US President Donald Trump has shared his desire to solve the Kashmir conflict.
But India has long rejected the idea of third-party involvement and has not committed to formal talks as part of the truce deal.
General Chaudhry, who has spent the last week in close contact with the all-powerful head of the Pakistan army, Asim Munir, accused India of trying to “internalise” the issue and “harassing” Kashmiri people with a heavy troop presence.
“It is a problem that has to be resolved by the people of Kashmir as per the United Nations Security Council resolution,” he said.
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There remains a huge gulf between the two nations, despite the relative calm in the last few days.
Pakistan believes it has delivered a huge military victory, despite India’s much larger armed forces, and it is hopeful that victory will deliver change.
You get a sense they feel they outfoxed their neighbour.
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But India is defiant and deeply frustrated at the US appearing to steer the public narrative on the crisis and raising the issue of Kashmir at a time when Modi believes all the talk should be about terrorism and avenging the attack in Pahalgam.
The test will be just how much influence the US can have on a reluctant New Delhi and how much, if at all, the promise of trade will encourage them to talk.
