Daily Trust Editorial, Friday May 23, 2025
The world heaved a sigh of relief with the de-escalation of the India and Pakistan conflict when President Donald Trump announced a “full and immediate ceasefire” on Saturday, May 10, 2025. India had on the night of May 6, 2025, launched multiple missile attacks targeting sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Specifically, the Indian Defence Ministry stated that the airstrikes focused on at least nine sites “Where terrorist attacks against India have been planned,” listing them as headquarters of militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammed in Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Muridke, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and a group called ‘313.’
India argued that the group, Resistance Front, which is linked to the LeT, was a proxy for the Pakistani military. Pakistan denied any connection. Thirty-one people were killed in the attacks. Following these strikes, there were border skirmishes and drone strikes between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Tensions had soared since April 22, when a group of militants launched the worst attack on civilians in the region in two decades, killing 25 Indians and one Nepali national in the picturesque resort town of Pahalgam in Indiaadministered Kashmir.
This is not the first conflict. The world has seen a succession of escalatory titfor-tat measures that put the region on the brink of all-out war. The tension and rivalry have cost tens of thousands of lives, especially during the 1947-48, 1965 and 1971 wars. But from the late 1990s, India and Pakistan almost reached the brink of war, but familiar de-escalation has always unfolded through intense diplomacy, often led by the United States.
In 1999, there was the Kargil conflict triggered by Pakistani forces crossing the Line of Control into Indian-administered Kashmir. In 2001, shuttle diplomacy averted war after an attack inside the Indian Parliament by terrorists allegedly linked to Pakistan-based groups. Again, after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, where terrorists linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba killed 166 people, high level diplomacy reduced the risk of escalated conflict.
In 2016, after 19 Indian soldiers were killed in Uri, India launched “surgical strikes” across the Line of Control – the de facto border between India and Pakistan – targeting militant bases. Then, in 2019, during the Balakot crisis, which followed a suicide bombing in Pulwama, Kashmir that killed 40 Indian security personnel, global diplomatic pressure helped contain any conflagration.
Indeed, there have been repeated exchanges of fire along the Line of Control, which divides the disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Kashmir has been claimed by both India and Pakistan since they were partitioned following independence from Britain in 1947.
A United Nations-mediated ceasefire in 1949 was pinned on the agreement that Kashmir would be controlled partly by Pakistan and partly by India, split along what’s known as the Line of Surveillance or Line of Control. And the conflict is not just about territory. Kashmir is rich in minerals such as borax, sapphire, graphite, marble, gypsum, and lithium and is also strategically, culturally and historically important to both Pakistan and India.
The repeated tension in the region is very worrisome because of their military strength. Military Watch magazine ranks India as one of the world’s top five military nations, while Pakistan is ranked ninth. And both have their share of reservoirs of nuclear weapons.
We at Daily Trust join the global community in hailing the ceasefire announcement. We, therefore, call on both Indian and Pakistani militaries to make the ceasefire agreement and end of hostilities a permanent feature of the region. In this direction, both nations should, as a matter of urgency, work towards the initiation and sustenance of enduring normalcy in bilateral relations. We believe that it is time for them to have back channel discussions that nip the recurring conflicts in the bud.
We also call for restraint and implore both nations to control their proxy groups from initiating possible incidents of cross-border terrorism that usually trigger off escalation of hostilities.
Most importantly, we urge both nations to embrace the urgency of the institution of feasible and sustainable dialogue. This is imperative because it is desirable and will serve as a deterrent to future conflicts. They should limit political tensions through bilateral relations and regular summits.
Both foreign ministers and prime ministers should institute regular summit-level bilateral contacts to discuss issues of mutual concern, especially on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
We believe that over the years, each has made their point. Now, it is time to discard national pride and leaders’ egos and work earnestly for the cause of long lasting peace, after all, it is clear that none can prevail in a war without inflicting and sustaining massive destruction on their people. For now, the ceasefire is holding despite mutual accusations of violations. They should remain committed and work towards ensuring that there is no repeat of further crises.
In the end, India and Pakistan should ensure that their frail relationship doesn’t become a recurring source of heightened communal tensions in the region, especially as Pakistan is the homeland for the subcontinent’s Muslims and India for Hindus. They should learn and embrace peaceful coexistence.
