India and Pakistan agree to an immediate ceasefire

BarcelonaIndia and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar announced in a post on social media. "Pakistan has always sought peace and security in the region without compromising its sovereignty and territorial integrity," he added. Earlier, a statement by the US president had said the talks had been held. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he and Vice President JD Vance had held talks with senior officials from India and Pakistan.

The announcement comes after Pakistan bombed several military bases in northern India with missiles and drones early this morning, according to the Pakistani armed forces and confirmed by Indian authorities. The attack was Islamabad's first response to theIndian attack on Pakistani positions last Wednesday and represented a serious escalation in the conflict between the two nuclear powers.

"Today, we have given India a worthy response and avenged the blood of innocent lives," Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement. Pakistani forces have claimed responsibility for 16 attacks on various Indian military locations, in an operation they have dubbed Bunyanun Marssos (Iron Wall). According to the Pakistani version, the bombings would have destroyed several Brahmos missile warehouses, an airfield in Pathankot (in the province of Punjab) and the Udhampur air base, between the regions of Kashmir and Jammu.

They would also have eliminated a military barracks and several military supply depots located near the Line of Control in Kashmir. In addition, Pakistan claims to have destroyed Indian S-400 air defense systems. Islamabad claimed that India had previously launched missiles and drones at several Pakistani air bases, but that the missiles had been intercepted.

For his part, Indian Army Commander Vyomika Singh assured in a press conference that India had "successfully neutralized" the bulk of the attack, but at the same time admitted limited damage to equipment and personnel at the aforementioned air bases in Udhampur and Pathankot, as well as at the larger air bases in Udhampur and Pathankot.

India has announced that it has temporarily suspended civilian aircraft operations at 32 airports across the country, including several located in Indian-administered Kashmir, including Srinagar, the main city in the region, where several explosions have been reported. Airfields in the states of Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, bordering Pakistan, are also affected.

Call for restraint and dialogue

Despite the rising tension, both sides issued early messages indicating their willingness to halt the escalation. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said the ball was now in India's court: "This operation we launched today will end somehow. It all depends on what India wants," he said. In a local television interview, he stated that if India halted the attacks, Pakistan would also "consider" halting them.

For its part, the Indian military has said it is responding to the attacks but would show restraint if Pakistan did the same. "Indian forces reiterate that they do not want an escalation of tensions and urge Pakistan to act in a similar manner," said Colonel Sofiya Qureshi.

Several international governments have reiterated calls for restraint. One of the figures who has intervened to reduce tensions has been US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke by telephone with Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir. The US Secretary of State also offered US assistance "to initiate constructive talks and avoid future conflicts," according to a statement.

China, which shares a border with this hotspot, also expressed "deep concern" and called for "calm and restraint, and a return to the path of political resolution through peaceful means." It also indicated its willingness to "continue playing a constructive role" to "promote regional peace and stability."

The great fear of an armed conflict between India and Pakistan is the possibility that nuclear weapons could end up being used, moreover, in one of the most populated areas in the world. However, this Saturday, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif considered it "a very remote possibility." "We shouldn't even discuss it in the immediate context [...] Before we get to this point, I think the temperature will drop," he said, adding that no meeting of the National Command Authority—the body responsible for the nuclear arsenal—has taken place, nor is one planned. During the early hours of the morning, some media reported that the Pakistani prime minister had called a meeting of this body, increasing fears that nuclear weapons could come into play.

The origin of the escalation

The operation by Pakistani forces is a response to the missile attack launched by India early Wednesday morning. on at least nine locations in Pakistan and Kashmir which, according to New Delhi, targeted "terrorist infrastructure" linked to the Islamist militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. At least 31 people were killed and 57 others were injured by the projectiles. For India, the attack responded to a "planned strategy" and was limited to locations that supported terrorist groups politically, logistically, or economically, specifically the group responsible forThe attack that killed 25 Indian tourists and one Nepalese tourist in late April at the Pahalgam hill station in Kashmir.

Indian authorities have attributed the attack to two Pakistani citizens. But Pakistan has distanced itself from the insurgent militias blamed for the attack and denies Indian accusations of supporting cross-border terrorism. On Thursday, the Pakistani president promised a response and said India should "pay for its mistake."

Exchanges of fire on the Line of Control in Kashmir, the military border de facto between the two countries, has not stopped since the attack on April 22. And the situation has led to thelargest escalation between the two nuclear powers in the last 25 yearsThe last major military conflict between India and Pakistan was the Kargil War—also in this historically disputed region of Kashmir—in 1999, a year after both countries formally became nuclear states.