UNEASY CALM PERSISTS
For India, Operation Sindoor marked a turning point in its counter-terrorism policy.
Its new security doctrine signals a willingness to respond to terrorism with “a swift and proportionate response” regardless of borders or diplomatic sensitivities.
Analysts warn that this keeps the entire region on a knife’s edge.
Harsh Pant, vice president at Delhi-based think-tank Observer Research Foundation, said India will “continue to climb the escalation ladder”.
“(This is) because there are costs that have to be imposed on those who believe that under the influence of a certain kind of stability that maybe nuclear weapons provide, countries can perpetrate violence, whether it is state-led or whether it is non-state-led,” he added.
Despite the ceasefire, relations remain strained.
Diplomatic ties are downgraded, India has suspended a key water-sharing treaty, and Pakistan has put on hold a post-1971 peace agreement – moves that underscore the fragility of the current pause.
Experts have urged restraint, saying both countries must de-escalate through dialogue.
Former Pakistani Defence Secretary Naeem Khalid Lodhi, a retired lieutenant general, noted that the stakes are too high for confrontation, saying: “We must have peace with India because more than 1.5 billion people of this region get affected by our animosity and our standoff.”
At the heart of the dispute remains Kashmir, a flashpoint that continues to hinder long-term stability and economic potential in South Asia.
“This region, South Asia, has so much promise, so much potential in economic terms. It (comprises) one-quarter of the world population,” said Pakistani career diplomat Jauhar Saleem, president of think-tank Institute of Regional Studies.
“But that promise has not been realised.”
