How India, Pakistan Reached A Ceasefire With Direct DGMO Talks

(MENAFN- Live Mint) The cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan was achieved after a call from the Pakistan DGMO Major General Kashif Abdullah to his Indian counterpart, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai early in the afternoon of Saturday. The former's offer to stop the firing and the air attacks was met with the response that India too would do the same, people directly familiar with the matter said.

They added that while representatives from the US and various other countries had indeed spoken to top Indian officials including foreign minister S Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval, there was no interaction between the foreign ministers of the two countries, nor between the NSAs. This was only fitting, the people said, pointing out that it all started with the terror attack at Pahalgam, which India responded to on the morning of May 7, with targeted strikes at nine terror hubs in Pakistan and PoK, and that since then, India has only been responding, and proportionately and responsibly, to Pakistan's escalation.

HT learns that the US pushed Pakistan to cease hostilities and that its support for the IMF bailout package for Islamabad may have been conditional to this.

The people said that there were no other aspects to the cessation of hostilities, and that there was no talk of a political dialogue or a meeting. Measures announced by India, including the country walking out of the Indus Water Treaty would remain, they added.

The people said that the sole objective of Operation Sindoor was to strike at terror, and to send Pakistan a message that its sponsorship of terror would not go unpunished, adding that any future terror attack would be seen as an act of war.

This article first appeared in Hindustan Times.

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