India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has made it clear to Pakistan that India reserves the right to protect its interests which implicitly include actions such as the surgical strike across the LoC.
According to a report in Times of India, Doval conveyed this message to his Pakistani Counterpart Nasir Khan Janjua during their telephonic conversation yesterday.
Doval is also reported to have cold shouldered Pakistan’s offer of cooperating with India to investigate the Uri attack and said that India has lost confidence in Pakistan in view of its inaction after Pathankot attack.
India had invited a Pakistani team to visit Pathankot air base to investigate the terror attack but Pakistan refused to facilitate a return visit by Indian investigators to look into the attackers' Pakistan links.
Doval reportedly conveyed India’s disappointment to Janjua over Pakistan’s lack of cooperation in this matter.
Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif’s foreign policy advisor, had told the media that the two NSAs agreed upon de-escalation at the border which was later reiterated by Abdul Basit, Pakistan’s high commissioner to India.
"Both our countries understand war is not really a solution to our problems and there is simply no room for a conflict in a nuclear environment... It is important to avoid raising false expectations, as happened after the cross-LoC firing (how Pakistan refers to the surgical strike) on September 29. We cannot afford to go down that route," Abdul Basit told The Indian Express.
"Statements are made, but I think both countries do understand serious implications of escalating the situation either horizontally or vertically," he added.
However, quoting its sources, the TOI report says that the Indian government is in no mood to relax its defence posture on the border in view of the continued firing by Pakistan and the repeated attacks on Indian security posts.
