Singapore (Web Desk): Pakistan and India are nearing the reduction of troop deployments along their shared border to levels seen before the recent conflict, according to General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Pakistan's Chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCSC).
In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Mirza said the crisis, despite the ongoing de-escalation, has heightened the risk of future escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
The two countries recently engaged in their most intense fighting in decades, involving the use of fighter jets, missiles, drones, and artillery over four days, before a ceasefire was put in place.
The latest round of hostilities followed the April 22 Pahalgam attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), where 26 people, most of them tourists, were killed. India accused Pakistani elements of orchestrating the attack, though it provided no evidence to support this claim.
Pakistan has denied involvement and called for an independent investigation into the incident. Tensions escalated further on May 7 when India launched missile strikes against targets it described as "terrorist infrastructure" across the border. Pakistan responded with defensive military actions, leading both sides to increase their troop presence along the frontier.
General Mirza stated that the process of pulling back troops had begun and that the situation was nearly back to the way it was before the April 22 incident. “We have almost come back to the pre-April 22 situation... we are approaching that, or we must have approached that by now,” said Mirza, who is currently attending the Shangri-La Dialogue forum in Singapore. Indian defense authorities, including the Ministry of Defence and the office of the Chief of Defence Staff, did not immediately respond to Reuters' inquiries about Mirza’s statements.
Mirza emphasized that while nuclear weapons were not brought into play during this particular conflict, the overall situation remained precarious.
“Nothing happened this time,” he said. “But you can't rule out any strategic miscalculation at any time, because when the crisis is on, the responses are different.”
He expressed concern that the latest violence extended beyond the IIOJK region, a shift that he believes increases the danger in future confrontations.
“This (conflict) lowers the threshold between two countries who are contiguous nuclear powers...in the future, it will not be restricted to the disputed territory. It would come down to (the) whole of India and (the) whole of Pakistan,” Mirza said. “This is a very dangerous trend.”
Diplomatic sources told Reuters that the quick de-escalation was made possible by discreet efforts from the United States, with Washington playing a significant role in diffusing the crisis. However, India has publicly maintained that any discussions or conflict resolutions must be bilateral, rejecting any third-party involvement.
General Mirza cautioned that future mediation might be difficult due to a lack of structured crisis management systems between the two countries.
“The time window for the international community to intervene would now be very less, and I would say that damage and destruction may take place even before that time window is exploited by the international community,” he said.
He added that while Pakistan is open to dialogue, current communication between the two countries is limited to a crisis hotline between directors general of military operations and a few tactical-level hotlines on the border.
Mirza confirmed that no backchannel talks or informal negotiations are underway to reduce tensions.
He also noted that there are no plans to meet his Indian counterpart, General Anil Chauhan, who is also present at the Shangri-La Dialogue. “These issues can only be resolved by dialogue and consultations, at the table. They cannot be resolved on the battlefield,” General Mirza said.