By Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam
ISLAMA BATH (Reuters) – Pakistani army chiefs on Thursday called on arch-rivals India and Pakistan to “bury the past” and move towards cooperation, a revelation in the direction of New Delhi following an unexpected joint ceasefire announcement last month between the two military militaries.
However, General Qamar Javed Bajwa stressed that India had the burden of creating a ‘favorable environment’, and said that Washington should play a role in ending regional conflicts.
Pakistan and India, both nuclear-armed countries, have waged three wars and in 2019 tensions escalated dramatically when they sent fighter jets to each other’s territory.
“We feel it is time to bury the past and move forward,” Bajwa said in a speech at a conference in Islamabad to emphasize the Pakistani government’s new security policy.
“But … our neighbor (India) will have to create a favorable environment, especially in Kashmir-occupied India,” he said.
The powerful army of Pakistan has ruled the country for almost half of its 73-year existence, and the military has long controlled foreign and security policy.
India and Pakistan both control parts of the northern Kashmir region, but both claim the Himalayan region in full – which has been a source of most conflict between the two.
Relations deteriorated in 2019 after Delhi stripped its share of Kashmir of the special status it had long enjoyed under the Indian constitution.
Bajwa said the economic potential of South and Central Asia ‘remained hostage forever’ to the disputes between India and Pakistan.
The military armies of both countries issued a rare statement on February 25, announcing a ceasefire along the disputed border in Kashmir. They have changed hundreds of times over the past few months.
The United States immediately welcomed the move and urged the two to ‘build on this progress’.
Bajwa said Pakistan had “hope” in the form of President Joe Biden’s new government, which he said could help ease peace in the region.
(Reporting by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Frances Kerry)