Imran Khan sees better chance of India-Pak peace talks if Modi wins polls

This was despite the massive alienation that Muslims in Kashmir and Muslims in general were facing in Modi's India, said Imran Khan.

Business Standard : Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said he thinks there may be a better chance of peace talks with India if Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wins the general election due to begin there on Thursday.

Khan said that if the next Indian government were led by the opposition Congress party, it might be too scared to seek a settlement with Pakistan over Kashmir, fearing a backlash from the right.

"Perhaps if the BJP - a right-wing party - wins, some kind of settlement in Kashmir could be reached," Khan told a small group of foreign journalists in an interview.

This was despite the massive alienation that Muslims in Kashmir and Muslims in general were facing in Modi's India, said Khan, who took office last August.

"I never thought I would see what is happening in India right now," said the former international cricket star.

"Muslim-ness is being attacked."

Khan said Indian Muslims he knew who many years ago had been happy about their situation in India were now very worried by extreme Hindu nationalism.

He said Modi, like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was electioneering based on "fear and nationalist feeling".

The BJP's pledge this week to propose stripping decades-old special rights from the people of Jammu and Kashmir, which prevent outsiders from buying property in the state, was a major concern, though it could also be electioneering, Khan said.

Khan did appear to offer India an olive branch, saying that Islamabad was determined to dismantle all Pakistan-based militias in the country, and that the government had full support from Pakistan's powerful army for the programme. Those to be dismantled include groups involved in Kashmir.

Nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India both claim Kashmir in full but rule in part.

Khan said Kashmir was a political struggle and there was no military solution, adding that Kashmiris suffered if armed militants from Pakistan came across the border, leading to Indian army crackdowns.

Relations between Pakistan and India, which have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, two over Kashmir, reached a crisis point in February after a suicide bombing killed 40 Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir.

US magazine report 'contradicts' India's claim of shooting down Pak's F-16

The finding by the US on the ground in Pakistan "directly contradicts" India's claim that its air force shot down an F-16 fighter jet during an aerial dogfight on February 27.

Business Standard : A US count of the F-16s with Pakistan has found that none of them are "missing" and all the fighter planes were "present and accounted for", according to a report in a prominent American magazine.

The finding by the US on the ground in Pakistan "directly contradicts" India's claim that its air force shot down an F-16 fighter jet during an aerial dogfight on February 27.

The Indian Air Force on February 28 displayed pieces of the AMRAAM missile, fired by a Pakistani F-16, as evidence to "conclusively" prove that Pakistan deployed US-manufactured F-16 fighter jets during an aerial raid targeting Indian military installations in Kashmir.

Pakistan had categorically said that no F-16 fighter jets were used and denied that one of its planes had been downed by the IAF.

According to the Foreign Policy magazine, Pakistan invited the United States to physically count its F-16 planes after the incident as part of an end-user agreement signed when the foreign military sale was finalised.

"A US count of Pakistan's F-16 fleet has found that all the jets are present and accounted for, a direct contradiction to India's claim that it shot down one of the fighter jets during a February clash," Lara Seligman of the magazine reported on Thursday.

The count of the F-16 fighter planes in Pakistan has been completed, and "all aircraft were present and accounted for," an unnamed defence official was quoted as saying by the magazine.

The Department of Defence did not immediately respond to a question on its count of F-16 fighter jets in Pakistan.

"As details come out, it looks worse and worse for the Indians," MIT professor Vipin Narang told Foreign Policy magazine.

"It looks increasingly like India failed to impose significant costs on Pakistan, but lost a plane and a helicopter of its own in the process," he said.

Generally, in such agreements, the US requires the receiving country to allow its officials to inspect the equipment regularly to ensure it is accounted for and protected, the news report said.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the suicide bomber of JeM killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14.

China claims credit for 'constructive role' in reducing India-Pak tension

A Pakistani minister said China and the United Arab Emirates also intervened to lessen tension between the south Asian neighbors.

China played a “constructive role” in reducing tension between Pakistan and India, the foreign ministry said, after the nuclear-armed rivals almost came to blows last month following an attack on an Indian paramilitary convoy in disputed Kashmir.

The sparring threatened to spiral out of control and only interventions by U.S. officials, including National Security Adviser John Bolton, headed off a bigger conflict, five sources familiar with the events have told Reuters.

At one stage, India threatened to fire at least six missiles at Pakistan, and Islamabad said it would respond with its own missile strikes “three times over”, said Western diplomats and government sources in New Delhi, Islamabad and Washington.

A Pakistani minister said China and the United Arab Emirates also intervened to lessen tension between the south Asian neighbors.

In a faxed statement to Reuters late on Monday, responding to a question on China’s role in reining in the crisis, its foreign ministry said peaceful coexistence between Pakistan and India was in everyone’s interest.

“As a friendly neighbor of both India and Pakistan, China pro-actively promoted peace talks and played a constructive role in easing the tense situation,” it said.

“Some other countries also made positive efforts in this regard,” the ministry added.

China is willing to work with the international community to continue to encourage the neighbors to meet each other half way and use dialogue and peaceful means to resolve differences, it said, without elaborating.

The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, is set to meet Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Beijing later on Tuesday.

The Feb. 14 attack that killed at least 40 paramilitary police was the deadliest in Kashmir’s 30-year-long insurgency, escalating tension between the neighbors, who said they shot down each other’s fighter jets late last month.

China and Pakistan call each other “all-weather” friends, but China has also been trying to improve ties with New Delhi.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held an informal summit in China last year agreeing to reset relations, and Xi is expected to visit India sometime this year, diplomatic sources say.

Business Standard

India-Pakistan tension: Threat of further escalation over, says Pak govt

The official told journalists that Pakistan did not foresee any further "aggressive action" from India, the report said.

The threat of further escalation between India and Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack is over, an internal assessment of the Pakistan government has concluded.

The Express Tribune reported that the assessment was shared by a senior official on Monday in a background briefing on the current state of relations between the two neighbouring countries.

"There is a visible de-escalation in tension," the official said.

The official told journalists that Pakistan did not foresee any further "aggressive action" from India, the report said.

Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14.

Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26.

The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured Indian pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.

ALSO READ: India-Pakistan tensions may not impact insurance covers, say experts

There was fear that India may launch more strikes or escalate the situation to end the crisis on a high note, the paper said.

When asked whether Pakistan feared another possible misadventure' by India before the elections in the country, the official confidently replied: "There is no room for such aggressive action from India".

The upbeat assessment of the government is apparently linked to hectic diplomacy involving many regional and international players, seeking de-escalation in tensions between the two countries, the paper said.

In a first sign of easing of tensions, Pakistani and Indian high commissioners resumed their diplomatic work in Islamabad and New Delhi on Saturday.

Both countries called back their envoys for consultations soon after the Pulwama attack.

India handed over to Pakistan a dossier on "specific details" of involvement of the JeM in the attack.

Business Standard

Flirting with nukes: India, Pakistan have become captives of own propaganda

Someone has to break this dangerous cycle. Ensuring that Pakistan's latest crackdown on jihadists is for real is the best place to start.

Business Standard : If you had to name the man most likely to spark a nuclear war, who would you pick? Kim Jong Un? Here’s another candidate: Masood Azhar, the founder of the Pakistani jihadist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, or Army of Mohammed.

After three weeks of dramatically escalating tensions, India and Pakistan appear to have pulled back from the brink of war—for now. But the larger question remains: What does the Pakistani army’s longstanding policy of nurturing jihadist groups mean for stability in South Asia? As an increasingly nationalist India grows more assertive, Pakistan’s jihadists could inadvertently trigger a catastrophic war.

JeM stands at the center of the continuing confrontation between the two nuclear-armed nations. It flared up with a Valentine’s Day suicide car-bombing in Indian Kashmir that killed more than 40 Indian soldiers. On Feb. 26, Indian warplanes retaliated by bombing a JeM training camp in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the first attack across the international border since the 1971 war that turned East Pakistan into independent Bangladesh.

On Feb. 27, the Pakistani air force bombed Indian targets in Kashmir but did not cause material damage—exercising deliberate restraint, in Pakistan’s telling. In the scramble that followed, Pakistan downed an Indian MiG-21 and captured its pilot. His return two days later cooled temperatures somewhat, but the countries continue to exchange artillery fire along the line of control, the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir.

More than a week after India’s airstrikes, the facts remain fuzzy. Citing commercial satellite images, international experts have cast doubts on Indian claims that its airstrikes hit a terrorist camp and eliminated “a very large number of JeM terrorists.” Pakistan’s government says India’s bombs hit a clump of trees. The Pakistani media gleefully reported that India martyred an unfortunate crow.

So far, India has also failed to provide credible evidence that one of its Soviet-era MiG-21s shot down a Pakistani F-16. Virtually nobody outside India believes the more lurid stories, tom-tommed by ruling Bharatiya Janata Party politicians, of hundreds of hapless jihadists vaporized by India’s high-tech, Israeli-made bombs. Nor has Pakistan backed up its boast of downing an Indian Sukhoi-30 fighter.

The details matter. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election prospects in a few months hinge partly on his image as a strongman, unafraid to take India’s fight against terrorism to Pakistan. A tale of eliminating 250 bloodthirsty jihadists obviously plays better than one of accidentally felling a pocket of forest.

IAF hit the target in Balakot; we don't count kills: Air Chief BS Dhanoa

Air Chief said it was up to the goverment to calculate the number of casualties in the strike.

Speaking on air strikes carried out by Indian Air Force (IAF) across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan, Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa on Monday said that the IAF had hit the target in Balakot, otherwise why would Pakistan Prime Minister have responded.

"If we dropped bombs in the jungles, then why would he respond?", said Dhanoa.

He further added saying, "Death toll depends on the number of people present in the target, IAF doesn't count the number of dead", said the IAF chief.

"IAF is not in a position to clarify the number of casualties. The government will clarify that. We don't count human casualties, we count what targets we have hit or not", clarified Dhanoa.

Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said that MiG21 used in shooting down Pakistan F-16 is an upgraded aircraft with advanced weapons system and the casualty figure in air strike on Balakot camp will be given by the government.

When asked when IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman will be back his fighter jet cockpit, IAF chief Dhanoa said, "Whether he (Wing Commander Abhinandan) flies or not depends on his medical fitness.

That's why post-ejection, he has undergone a medical check. Whatever treatment required, will be given. Once we get his medical fitness, he will get into fighter cockpit," he said.

Business Standard

India-Pak conflict: Senators urge Trump to pursue peaceful resolution

They also urged Trump to ensure that Pakistan does more against the terrorist groups.

Business Standard : Two influential American Senators Thursday urged the US President Donald Trump to pursue a peaceful resolution to the India-Pak conflict including working with regional actors to apply pressure on New Delhi and Islamabad to address the underlying causes of the dispute.

In a letter, Senators Jerry Moran from Kansas and Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire said that there is a urgency surrounding the dangerous situation between India and Pakistan in the Kashmir region.

They also urged Donald Trump to ensure that Pakistan does more against the terrorist groups.

We affirm India's right to self-defense in response to attacks planned and executed by Pakistani-based terrorist groups designated by the United States and United Nations and welcome Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's recent decision to release a captured Air Force officer from India, the two Senators wrote.

Tensions between India and Pakistan rose following the February 14 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in which 40 CRPF soldiers were killed. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Following the attack, India bombed and destroyed JeM's biggest training camp in Balakot in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 80-km from the Line of Control (LoC) early Tuesday, killing a "very large number" of terrorists, trainers and senior commanders.

ALSO READ: LIVE: Pakistan to return IAF pilot today; Amarinder wants to receive him

Pakistan detained Indian Air Force Pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, Wednesday following a fierce engagement between air forces of the two sides along the Line of Control when his MiG 21 fighter jet was downed.

However, in a surprise announcement during a joint session of Parliament, Prime Minister Imran Khan said Thursday that the captured IAF pilot Varthaman will be released on Friday as a gesture of peace.

The two American Senators said that they have ongoing concerns that this crisis may scale into an all-out war given the thousands of troops amassed along the countries' border, heavy artillery barrages and gunfire recorded in the area and tank columns taking formation.

India-Pakistan tensions: Getting arrested IAF pilot back may not be easy

P D T Acharya, a constitutional expert and a former secretary-general of the Lok Sabha, said it was unlikely the pilot would be repatriated soon.

Bringing back the Indian Air Force pilot captured by Pakistani forces on Wednesday will not be easy and depend on formal and back-channel negotiations between the two nations and international intervention, experts say.

Thee Indian government on Wednesday said IAF had shot down a PAF F-16 in engagements over the Line of Control, and added that India had lost a MiG-21 Bison and a pilot was missing in action.

Pakistan officially said the pilot was in its custody. Pakistani media and social media was circulating videos of him being questioned. In the absence of formal declaration of hostilities, the Geneva Convention governing the treatment and repatriation of prisoners of war (PoWs) do not apply. “The Geneva Convention is applicable to a war or a war-like situation. And, there is no declaration of war yet,” said retired Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak of the Center of Air Power Studies.

(Business Standard)

The convention clearly states PoWs must be treated humanely, cannot be prosecuted for taking part in hostilities, and should be released and repatriated without delay after the end of hostilities. None of these apply to the IAF pilot.

“There are always channels of communication for such situations. Since this time an Indian pilot has been captured, we should initiate talks to get him back,” said Kak, putting the onus on the Indian government to begin the process.

P D T Acharya, a constitutional expert and a former secretary-general of Lok Sabha, said it is unlikely the pilot will be repatriated soon, and a lot will depend on intervention by other global powers.

“They will keep him there for quite some time. There are no easy options. It won’t be unusual for a foreign power to intervene and get him released after some time, but not immediately,” said Acharya. “Once the temperature between the nations comes down, we can see some movement. Pakistani PM (Imran Khan) has already talked about dialogue. He seems to be in a conciliatory mood. That only shows there has been intervention by foreign countries.”

Retired Wing Commander Praful Bakshi, a security expert, said: “If we escalate, you can forget about this boy. There can be talks between the two high commissions and foreign ministries, the two directors general of military operations, even the Prime Minister’s Offices.”

All three analysts agreed on one thing, though: That the IAF pilot won’t be mistreated or tortured. He was declared by the Pakistani channels and establishment as being in their custody -- his videos were being circulated -- and that showed Pakistan was responsible for him now and that gave him some kind of protection from any mistreatment, they said