WE can perhaps breathe a sigh of relief. After several days of heightened tension between Pakistan and India following the Pulwama attack in India-held Kashmir, the signs of de-escalation are apparent. Islamabad’s high commissioner to India should be soon on his way to New Delhi, and Pakistan says there will be no change in the schedule of negotiations with India regarding the much-awaited opening of the Kartarpur Corridor. A Pakistani delegation will travel to India for talks on March 14, and the Indians will reciprocate on March 28. If this happens, it would be a remarkable turnaround considering the fears of the people of Pakistan and India following the recent aerial misadventure by the Narendra Modi government. The build-up to a possible conflict had caused grave concern the world over, amid a successful retaliatory strike by Pakistan and claims by the Imran Khan-led setup that the Modi administration had planned more raids into Pakistani territory. Such raids could have triggered a full-blown war of unprecedented consequences between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

However, on the face of it at least, this de-escalation has been a one-sided process, with the rulers in Delhi, who will be contesting an election this summer, maintaining a defiant, often intimidating, posture to all international requests and pleas for normalisation. The Khan government may be justifiably given credit for the decrease in tensions, but it knows how difficult it is for Pakistan to have a sustained dialogue with India. The latter, meanwhile, has preconditions: before holding talks that could lead to the path of normalisation, it wants Islamabad to take action against non-state actors on Pakistani soil suspected of conducting attacks in IHK and India. This is a sensitive subject not least because often the accusations are politically motivated and aimed at weakening Islamabad’s principled position on occupied Kashmir which has been subjected to some of the worst forms of violence at the hands of the Indian forces. The situation is, indeed, very precarious and will continue to be unless India adopts a more flexible approach and engages in talks. The effort for peace has to continue with a clear understanding of all the factors that can easily scuttle a lifeline such as Kartarpur. Following the recent escalation in hostilities along the Pakistan-India boundaries, peace will look all the more fragile, and require protection against the agents of disruption who are forever looking for internal and external reasons to sell war.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2019