After Op Sindoor hits Pakistan, PM Shehbaz Sharif proposes talks with India

ISLAMABAD: Days after India targeted nine terror sites in Pakistan and inflicted damage to several of its airfields under Operation Sindoor, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed willingness to engage in talks with India for peace. However, he said that talks should be held on the Kashmir issue, The Express Tribune reported.

He extended the offer to India while interacting with the Pakistan Air Force pilots and personnel during a special visit to Kamra air base on Thursday. He said Pakistan was willing to hold talks to achieve peace, but it had certain conditions. He urged India to hold talks on the Kashmir issue, The Express Tribune reported.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar too called for “composite dialogue” with India to resolve all contentious matters, Dawn reported. His statement comes after Pakistan and India agreed to a cessation of hostilities.

While speaking in Pakistan’s Senate, he claimed that the ceasefire has been extended till May 18 through military-to-military communication, Dawn reported. The Indian side is yet to comment on this claim. Ishaq Dar then suggested that political dialogue will ultimately have to take place to resolve the problems between the two nations. Ishaq Dar said, “We have told the world that we will hold a composite dialogue”.

India has maintained that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are and will always remain an “integral and inalienable part of it”. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated that any future discussions will be confined to terrorism and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

In his address to the nation following Operation Sindoor, PM Modi said, “I would also like to tell the global community that our stated policy has been: if there are talks with Pakistan, it will be only on terrorism; and if there are talks with Pakistan, it will be only on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)”.

PM Modi warned that Pakistan’s support to terrorism could lead to its downfall. He added that achieving peace is impossible without destroying the terrorist infrastructure. “The way the Pakistani army and the Pakistan government are encouraging terrorism, it will destroy Pakistan one day. If Pakistan wants to survive, it will have to destroy its terror infrastructure. There is no other way to peace”, he added.

Tensions between India and Pakistan rose following the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which claimed the lives of 26 people and injured several others. In response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack, Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).

Following the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across airbases in Pakistan. On May 10, India and Pakistan reached an understanding on the cessation of hostilities. (ANI)