Calm returns as ceasefire holds between India, Pakistan

ISTANBUL

Calm returned Monday to India and Pakistan as a US-mediated ceasefire continued to hold following a week of heightened military tensions.

Top military officials of the two countries held a phone call, during which "continuing the commitment that both sides must not fire a single shot or initiate any aggressive and inimical action against each other was discussed."

They also agreed to “consider immediate measures to ensure troop reduction from the borders and forward areas,” the Indian army said after the call.

Earlier in the day, India’s civil aviation authorities decided to reopen 32 airports in norther parts of the country as well as in Jammu and Kashmir.

Tensions surged between the two sides after India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, hitting what New Delhi said were "nine terror locations" in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The Pakistani army said 33 people were killed due to the air strikes.

The rival militaries also engaged in heavy exchanges of fire, resulting in many deaths along the two sides of the Line of Control (LOC), a de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir valley between the two neighbors.

In its retaliatory missile strikes, Pakistan hit 26 Indian military targets and air force bases in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in mainland India.

Asserting that Operation Sindoor had achieved its aim, the Indian side said that five of its armed forces personnel lost their lives during the operation.

Addressing the nation late Monday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the stated policy of New Delhi has been that any talks with Islamabad "will be only on terrorism and on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir."

"India will not tolerate any nuclear blackmail," he added.

India’s Operation Sindoor was launched following the deaths of 26 people, mostly Indian tourists, on April 22 at the Pahalgam tourist site in Indian-administered Kashmir.

New Delhi blamed Islamabad, which denied any role but offered a neutral probe.

Soon after, the two sides took several reciprocal diplomatic measures, including the unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, a decades-long water-sharing pact, by New Delhi.