Seeing that from the last couple of days there is a continuous firing on the LoC by India resulting in the death of several lives gathered the attention of the national and international community. The recent visit of American national security advisor Susan Rice was seen in Pakistan as an attempt aimed specifically to de-escalate the evolving tension between the two nuclear-armed neighbouring countries.
On the contrary though, Newyork Times while quoting an American official reported that Ms. Rice’s visit to Pakistan was unrelated to the growing tensions between Pakistan and India and was scheduled weeks ago.
Nevertheless, issues such as the cancellation of Delhi talks, fear of high-scale military clashes, postponement of Kabul-Taliban talks, attacks on Pakistani posts from Afghan side and the recent rise in the blame game were discussed during the meeting.
Also, Washington State Department’s spokesperson John Kirby while responding to an Indian journalist said that there was no threat to use atomic bombs as no such statement has been seen from Pakistan. “These speculations about the possibility of using nukes would not help in lessening tensions”, he said.
He stressed that potent solutions to the longstanding disputes between India and Pakistan were only possible through talks. Kirby emphasized that both countries needed to sit down on the dialogue table and reach some meaningful solution.
On the other hand, Pakistan’s defense minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said Pakistan will strongly respond to Indian aggression it does not stop its hostilities along the Sialkot Working Boundary. He stressed that Pakistan will counter this situation on all levels. If war is forced on us, we will take good care of them(India) and that Pakistan has the right to retaliate in full force.
“We will defend our homeland and inflict much more damage than 1965”, he threatened.
Analytically, Pakistan’s growing strategic and economic cooperation with China is also one among the reasons of Indian exaggerated acts. Also, another possibility could be that by doing these malicious heavy shelling on borders, India wants to divert world’s attention from the communal riots in the Indian state of Gujarat. Also, the success gained in operation Zarb-e-Azb is also an anxiety factor for India as they see a stable Pakistan as a threat.
India is wrong if it still considers that under the nuclear overhang (Cold Start Doctrine) India can do some pre-emptive strikes. Given that India is playing with fire on the western borders so Pakistan should disengage in bilateral talks as a matter of fact bilateralisms is exposed enough by now. It is high time international community play a constructive role in this regard.
Future strategy
It is time for Pakistan to reformulate its action policy. Pakistan needs a paradigm shift and should employ a proactive policy. As a result, the opportunities we consider a hurdle can become our strength by taking the proactive approach. So it’s time to convert South Asian strategy from reaction to proaction.
