The India – Pakistan scene is littered with the debris of past events and each side has its own version of those events. There was the 1965 war rooted in the Kashmir situation at that time, then the 1971 exploitation of Pakistan’s predicament in East Pakistan that led to its secession, the 1984 aggression by India that created the still unresolved Siachen issue, there was the attack on the Indian Parliament that triggered a confrontation that could have led to war between the two nuclear weapon states, there was the Kargil attack from Pakistan, then the terrorist attack in Mumbai in 2008 and the latest is the cease fire violation on the Line of Control (LOC).
Like all previous events much has been written and spoken about the latest LOC situation. The media on both sides — but much more on the Indian side — has spewed venom and demanded action. Indian military leaders have spoken publicly in threatening tones delivering totally unwarranted warnings and politicians in India have exploited the situation to bring pressure on the government. Sanity seems to have prevailed at last and both sides are stepping back from the brink — there really being no other option. In Pakistan there is rare consensus that the situation was handled with restraint with the military abstaining from provocative statements and our Foreign Minister saying just the right things.
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