The recent killing of Indian soldiers along the Line of Control in Kashmir and the subsequent anti-Pakistan protests in New Delhi have dampened Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s hope to enhance bilateral relations with India. The recent scrimmage is expected to cast a shadow on likely dialogues between the two countries on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session next month. In fact, the so-called peace between the two nuclear rivals never took off.

In my opinion both sides need to demonstrate maturity and restraint to deal with the current escalation of tension. I also think the Indian defense minister would have done well to wait for a thorough inquiry into the incident before directly blaming “a specialist force in the Pakistan Army” of being involved in the killings. His statement has given a serious jolt to the peace efforts. The 2003-cease-fire agreement has largely held but can be further strengthened if both sides rise above mutual suspicions of each other’s intentions. And although the level of infiltration into the Indian-administered part of Kashmir has lessened significantly, Pakistan must do whatever it takes to ensure its territories are used for anti-India activities. — Shaukat Naeem Ghumman, Riyadh