By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers

Peace Between India and Pakistan

As we have seen, India and Pakistan engaged in the most intense fighting in decades.

Following several days of fighting, Islamabad and New Delhi agreed to a US-brokered truce on Saturday, as explosions reportedly ripped through parts of Kashmir over one final burst of strikes.

In a statement on X, Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said: “Pakistan and India have agreed to a ceasefire with immediate effect. Pakistan has always strived for peace and security in the region, without compromising on its sovereignty and territorial integrity!”

India’s Foreign Ministry said the head of Pakistan’s military operations called his Indian counterpart on the afternoon of May 10 and it was agreed that both sides would stop all firing.

But with red lines crossed in rapid tit-for-tat military and drone strikes in the three preceding days as each attacked the other’s cities and defense installations, keeping tensions under check would continue to be a challenge, analysts say.

And while the Indian and Pakistani accounts differ on some details, both sides agree that the breakthrough started to come on Saturday afternoon. A ceasefire agreed between India and Pakistan appears to be holding, with both sides stressing their commitment to the surprise truce which halted the worst fighting in decades between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

The ceasefire between Islamabad and New Delhi, which according to Pakistani officials had been in the works for several days, was agreed to after a “hotline” message was sent from a top Pakistani military official to his Indian counterpart, India’s military said Sunday, offering new details about how the unexpected deal was struck.

In a briefing Sunday, India’s director general of military operations said that as officials were huddling Saturday “to wargame” the early morning strikes from Pakistan, he received a message from his counterpart in Pakistan seeking communications.

Pakistan’s military confirmed Sunday that it reached out, but said it contacted intermediaries regarding a ceasefire with India. It did not specify which countries, although a Pakistani official involved in the talks told CNN it was the United States making the important calls Saturday.

During a call held at 3:35 p.m. local time, a ceasefire agreement was reached, according to India’s director general of military operations, Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai. He said a further call would be held to “discuss the modalities that would enable the longevity” of the agreement. Pakistan has not confirmed whether or not a call was held, but the official involved in the diplomatic efforts said Pakistan had received unspecified “assurances” from the US that India would abide by the ceasefire.

India’s Ministry of Information said the agreement was worked out “directly between the two countries,” downplaying US involvement and contradicting Trump’s claim. The ministry also said there was “no decision” to hold further talks.

An Indian paramilitary soldier patrols the street in Srinagar, India-administered Kashmir, on May 11, 2025.

India’s director general of military operations, Ghai, said India approached Islamabad on Wednesday following its initial strikes to “communicate our compulsions to strike at the heart of terror.”

India made a request – which was not specified - that was “brusquely turned down with an intimation that a severe response was inevitable and in the offing,” Ghai told reporters. The Pakistani military said that it was approached by India earlier in the week regarding a ceasefire.

“The Indians requested a ceasefire after the 8th and 9th of May after they started their operation. We told them we will communicate back after our retribution,” Pakistan’s Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said during a news conference on Sunday. After Pakistan’s military operation, “we reached the international interlocutors and we responded to the ceasefire request,” he said.

Speaking on Wednesday, after India’s initial strikes, a Pakistani official involved in diplomacy efforts said Pakistan was engaged with the US and that he hoped those conversations would bring positive results.

He said Pakistan was going to give diplomacy a chance and hold off on retaliation as the US and others tried diplomacy, though India claimed Pakistan repeatedly fired drones and artillery into its territory, something Islamabad has strenuously denied.

The Pakistani official said they were shocked when India attacked several Pakistani airbases early Saturday morning, as they thought diplomacy was still in play. Pakistan immediately struck back, he said, harder than they had previously planned.

Pakistan’s military called the strikes on multiple Indian military bases an “eye for an eye” and said they targeted the Indian air bases used to launch missiles on Pakistan.

The escalatory strikes from both sides forced the existing diplomatic efforts into high gear, including those by the United States, China, and Saudi Arabia, to broker an end to the fighting.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that he and Vice President JD Vance had spoken to the political and military leadership in India and Pakistan to secure an agreement before the situation deteriorated further.

Vance had pressed India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to find a potential “off-ramp” to escalating tensions, according to multiple sources at India’s foreign ministry. Modi listened, but did not commit, the sources said.

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi also spoke separately to top officials in India and Pakistan and expressed Beijing’s support for a ceasefire, according to readouts from China’s foreign ministry.

Just before 8 a.m. ET on Saturday, about 5 p.m. in India and Pakistan, Trump announced the ceasefire on Truth Social, writing: “After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE.”

India’s Foreign Ministry said the agreement was worked out “directly between the two countries,” downplaying US involvement and contradicting Trump’s claim.

But Pakistani officials heaped praise on Washington. “We thank President Trump for his leadership and proactive role for peace in the region,” said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

A Pakistani source familiar with the negotiations said Marco Rubio in particular, was instrumental in striking the deal, painting a picture of talks that were in doubt with trust at a low ebb and missile attacks from India only abating in the final few hours before the truce was confirmed.

It’s not surprising these bitter rivals give contradictory accounts of how a deal was struck.

India, which views itself as a regional superpower, has long been resistant to international mediation, whereas Pakistan, which is heavily dependent on foreign aid, tends to welcome it, analysts say.

The Indian military’s latest account of what happened raises further questions as to what exactly was Washington’s role in brokering the truce.

For India and Pakistan, the truce, which largely appears to be holding despite early accusations of each other violating the agreement, has brought much-needed relief to both sides.

In his first interview since India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire Saturday, Joshi said Islamabad “had no choice” but to launch strikes in “self-defense” following India’s May 7 cross-border attacks.

Last week’s escalatory tit-for-tat strikes marked the worst fighting between the two nuclear-armed nations since 1971, killing dozens and deepening fears of a wider conflict.

Joshi referred to India’s strikes as a “war” and a “wishful attempt to establish its hegemony” in the long-disputed Kashmir region – but said that the nuclear option was never on the table.

“There are certain times when you have to take very serious decisions,” he said, “We were very sure that our conventional capacity and capabilities are strong enough that we will beat them both in the air and on the ground.”

Locals stand on the debris of destroyed structures at the Government Health and Educational complex in Muridke, about 30 kilometers from Lahore, on May 7, after Indian strikes. 

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that India has “only paused our responsive attack on Pakistan’s terror and military hubs.”

“Operation Sindoor has drawn a new line under the fight against terrorism. This is a new phase, a new normal,” he said, adding, “If there is a terror attack on India, we will give a jaw-breaking response.”

“India will not tolerate any nuclear blackmail,” Modi cautioned.

The Indian leader asserted the ferocity of his country’s attacks pushed Pakistan to look for “ways to save themselves” by reaching a ceasefire deal.

“They were calling the world to reduce tensions after being completely destroyed,” he said.

In Islamabad, when asked about the impetus for the unexpected deal, Joshi said that “It is in the interest of everybody to not delay or to leave such issues beyond a certain reasonable time.”

“(The Indians) had seen what happened in the sky,” he added. “They could see how serious the damage was.”

A woman stands outside a house destroyed by Pakistani artillery shelling at the Salamabad village in Uri, about 110 km from Srinagar, on May 8.

There was no direct contact between Indian or Pakistani officials, Joshi said, contradicting a previous assertion made by India’s director general of military operations, who reportedly received a message from his counterpart in Pakistan during the talks.

Instead, Joshi said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio passed on the message that India was ready to stop the fighting.

Rubio said in a Saturday statement that he and US Vice President JD Vance had spoken to the political and military leadership in India and Pakistan to secure an agreement before the situation deteriorated further.

Joshi said on Monday that Pakistan was looking forward to establishing a path for long-term peace and security that would provide “dignity for both sides.”

 

Calls for ‘self-determination’ in Kashmir

The Muslim-majority region of Kashmir has been a flashpoint in India-Pakistan relations since both countries gained their independence from Britain in 1947.

The two nations to emerge from the bloody partition of British India – Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan – both claim Kashmir in full and, months after becoming independent, fought their first of three wars over the territory.

The divided region is now one of the most militarized places in the world.

Joshi  pointed to Kashmir as “the root cause of this regional instability” and called for the region’s “future self-determination.”

India has long accused Pakistan of harboring militant groups in Kashmir that conduct attacks across the border against Indian security forces, a charge Islamabad has rejected.

India launched its cross-border strikes last week in the wake of a tourist massacre in the Indian administered part of Kashmir in April.

Paramedics and police personnel carry an injured tourist at a hospital in Anantnag, south of Srinagar, on April 22, following an attack

Joshi reiterated that Pakistan was not behind last month’s rampage, saying, “We condemn terrorism in all forms and all manifestations.”

He added that he believes US President Donald Trump supports Pakistan’s antiterrorism efforts.

“If they didn’t believe (in our efforts), they would not have cooperated the way (that they did),” Manoj Joshi said, pointing to Trump’s social media poston “finding a solution” to the Kashmir conflict.

However, Joshi warned that the already precarious ceasefire could be threatened “if the [Kashmir] water issue is not resolved” in the coming talks, referring to ongoing disputes of access to water from rivers in Kashmir. Pakistan’s proposed solution involves reversing India’s decision to block three vast Kashmir rivers vital to Pakistan’s economy.

Last week, Indian media, citing government sources, reported that New Delhi had cut water flowing through the Baglihar dam in Indian-administered Kashmir, stopping water flowing into Pakistan via the Chenab river.

 

 

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