Defence experts say there is little chance that ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) and the working boundary could evolve into a bigger conflict.
They, however, feared that India would continue with its coercive attitude in an attempt to be more assertive in the region, said a press release.
They were speaking at a seminar on ‘India’s Aggressive Posture and Dangers of Escalation’ organised by Strategic Vision Institute (SVI) on Friday.
Former defence secretary Lt Gen (retd) Naeem Khalid Lodhi said India was unlikely to escalate the situation beyond manageable levels. He said India could, meanwhile, further increase its influence in Iran and Afghanistan to add pressure on Pakistan. Gen Lodhi said continuing terrorism in the country and failure to address the issue of “terrorist safe havens” would add to our problems.
The former defence secretary suggested that the government should improve relations with the United States and the neighbours particularly Iran and Afghanistan and complete counter terrorism operations in tribal areas.
Dr Adil Sultan, an expert with Strategic Plans Division (SPD) said increased posturing by India could have been because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategy to project himself as India’s strongman. Sultan said history of Pak-India crises suggests that nuclear deterrence has worked well. Dr Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema emphasised resolution of Kashmir issue for normalisation of Pak-India ties. SVI President Dr Zafar Iqbal Cheema said though there was no immediate threat to Pakistan, the implications of Modi’s aggressive policy towards our country needed to be studied.
SVI Chairman Ross Masood Hussain, in his concluding remarks, said the take-away from the seminar was that Pakistan would have to put its own house in order to deal with the challenges confronting it.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2014.
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