Pakistan and Indian military commanders have established a hotline contact and discussed matters relating to maintaining ceasefire along Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir. Is the ice is melting? The hotline contact was the second development between the arch-rivals within four days that can be seen as a thaw in the tense bilateral ties for years. On Monday last, New Delhi had accepted Islamabad’s request to let Prime Minister Imran Khan’s plane use Indian airspace to reach Sri Lanka and now both the militaries have established a hotline contact even when the Line of Control was not hot these days. According to a statement released by the military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), on Thursday, the Director Generals of Military Operations of Pakistan and India held discussions over the established mechanism of hotline contact. The two sides reviewed the situation along the LoC and all other sectors in a free, frank and cordial atmosphere.
In the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace, the two DGMOs agreed to address each other’s core issues/concerns which have the propensity to disturb the peace and lead to violence. Both sides agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing along the LoC and all other sectors, with effect from midnight 24/25 February 2021. Both sides reiterated that existing mechanisms of hotline contact and border flag meetings will be utilized to resolve any unforeseen situation or misunderstanding, concluded the ISPR statement. It may be mentioned here that there was a lull in clashes between the two militaries along the LoC and on the Working Boundary for quite some time. Before that, reports of clashes and casualties, especially civilian casualties on Pakistani side, were almost a daily affair.
About two weeks ago, the Indian Army had killed a civilian who mistakenly crossed LoC in Uri sector. Imran uses Indian airspace New Delhi on Monday last had accepted Islamabad’s request to let Prime Minister Imran Khan’s plane use Indian airspace to reach Sri Lanka. Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday while arriving at Colombo crossed into the airspace of India’s exclusive economic zone. The permission for it was sought from New Delhi from Islamabad a few days ago. India had given permission on Monday. As a protocol, whenever heads of state or government pass through the airspace of any other country, the country is alerted, and due permission taken. It is likely that PM Imran Khan will use the same route to return back from Sri Lanka to Pakistan. It may be noted that in the aftermath of India removing special status for the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan had denied permission for overflight for President Kovind’s plane one time, and PM Modi’s plane the second time. In September 2019, Pakistan denied the use of its airspace for President Kovind’s plane during his Europe visit. In the same month, it denied overflight to PM Modi’s plane to attend the UNGA session, followed by no permission to Air India one during PM’s Saudi Arabia visit in October 2019. India had taken the matter with the International Civil Aviation Organization.
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