India and Pakistan trade fire amid hope for diplomacy

Pakistani National Security Adviser Nasser Khan Janjua briefly spoke with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on Monday, the first such high-level contact in weeks.

Activists and supporters of India's Aam Aadmi Party (APP) shout anti-Pakistani slogans during a protest as they try to march towards the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi. Sajjad Hussain / AFP

Mumbai // Pakistan and India traded fresh accusations of cross-border fire in Kashmir on Tuesday after officials discussed ways of reducing tension over the region.

Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta, an Indian army spokesman, said Pakistani soldiers fired mortars at Indian army positions. Indian soldiers “appropriately responded to the unprovoked cease-fire violations,” he said. The Pakistani military said its troops responded to “unprovoked” Indian fire, which continued for two hours.

Pakistani National Security Adviser Nasser Khan Janjua briefly spoke with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on Monday, three officials in Islamabad said, the first such high-level contact in weeks.

The meeting has brought hope that diplomacy will ease the tensions, which escalated after a deadly attack on an army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir last month. India blamed the attack on Pakistan and hostility has been steadily increasing between the two nuclear-armed countries.

“We’re not interested in this escalating and any response we take would be measured and proportionate,” said G Parthasarathy, the former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan. “This time the difference is we’ve told them terrorists won’t have any safe havens, whether in territory controlled by India or whether in territory controlled by Pakistan.”

He said that India was keen to resolve the situation and if not “the status quo will continue”. India last week said it had launched “surgical strikes” on terrorist camps in the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir.

This was considered to be a significant escalation, given it would be the first time India had publicly claimed a strike across the de facto border.

But Pakistan denied that such strikes had taken place and said India had only fired across the Line of Control and killed two Pakistani soldiers. Nonetheless, the skirmish prompted India to evacuate thousands of villaers from the border area.

The clashes came after militants last month entered an Indian army base in Uri, killing 18 soldiers, with India blaming the attack on Pakistan. India insists that such militants are trained and armed by Pakistan, which Pakistan denies. . . On Sunday, militants attacked another army base in Baramulla in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing one soldier was killed and wounding another.

“War is not really a solution to our problems and there is simply no room for a conflict in a nuclear environment,” said Abdul Basit, the Pakistan high commissioner in New Delhi .“If India is ready [for diplomacy], Pakistan will be willing to engage. If India is not ready, we can always wait for India to make up its mind.” India and Pakistan should “talk to each other” rather than “talking at each other”, he said.

“If you immediately start saying that Pakistan is a terrorist state and it was all done by Pakistan, then you do not leave any room for cooperation.”

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has talked about isolating Pakistan internationally. But Mr Basit said that Pakistan was too big a country to be cut off from the international community.

Mr Parthasarathy said Pakistan was being told to “wind up their terrorist infrastructure” and “if they don’t, they will face the consequences from India, Afghanistan and the international community”.

“It is not the first time we are going through such a situation,” Mr Parthasarathy added. “It has been there before and I’m sure it will happen again. Except this time, the [Indian] government feels that terrorists coming across the border will not be treated with kid gloves and if necessary we will go across the line of control and get them.”

Elizabeth Trudeau, a spokeswoman for the US department of state urged restraint from both sides. “We understand, as we said last week, that the militaries are in touch. We believe that that continued communication is vital to reduce these tensions.”

Sudheendra Kulkarni, the chairman of the Observer Research Foundation in Mumbai, a think tank, said he did “not see any possibility of the current tensions and hostility between India and Pakistan escalating into a war”.

He believes that “the two governments will handle the situation in a mature and rational way, even though the tense situation along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir may continue for some more time”.

There are two measures that need to be taken to control tensions and to work towards a long-term solution to the issues, according to Mr Kulkarni.

“First, the government of Pakistan should assure India that its territory - also, the territory under its control - will not be allowed to be used for terrorist attacks aimed at Indian security forces or Indian civilians, in Kashmir or elsewhere. Second, the government of India should show its readiness to discuss with the government of Pakistan the contours and contents of a final and lasting solution to the contested issue of Jammu and Kashmir.”