“I think the two countries need to agree to formalise the 2003 ceasefire agreement,” said Pakistan’s High Commissioner in India Abdul Basit during an event in the capital city the other day.
Occasional ceasefire violations between the nuclear-armed neighbours are common and at a time, when there has been a recent surge in its occurrence and casualties are being reported on both sides, Basit said the two countries need to give the ceasefire agreement a fixed structure by introducing rules.
On Monday only, at least two Pakistani civilians including a minor girl were killed after Indian troops opened indiscriminate fire along the de facto border. Pakistan has protested repeatedly with the United Nations (UN) and the Indian government over the killings of civilians by Indian forces at the working boundary and the line of control (LoC).
Regarding India’s bids to isolate Pakistan diplomatically after the infamous Uri attack, Basit said, “How on earth it is possible to isolate a country on terrorism when that country itself is the worst victim of terrorism?”
The envoy reiterated that Kashmir remained a core issue between the two countries and that Pakistan does not need ‘misplaced jingoism and hyper-nationalism’ to pursue its foreign policy aims.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry on Monday said India should ‘act pragmatically’ in order to resolve bilateral issues and informed that, Pakistan had lodged a protest with India over the Monday’s incident of unprovoked firing at the diplomatic level.
