New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Imran Khan are likely to announce a set of carefully-calibrated measures to end the ongoing phase of hostility between the two sides when they meet on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on 13-14 June in Bishkek, ThePrint has learnt.
On top of the agenda of the Modi-Khan meeting is the restoration of airspace over Pakistan, which will be inaugurated by Air India One that is carrying the Indian PM to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, said sources.
The move is expected to bring temperatures down, as Pakistan had shut its airspace since the Indian Air Force (IAF) struck terror camps in Balakot deep inside Pakistan on 26 February.
The reopening of airspace is an immediate gain for India as airlines have been losing large sums of money taking circuitous routes, as they have to fly over Pakistan on their westward journey.
ThePrint first reported on 28 May a meeting between Modi and Khan in Bishkek, notwithstanding a careful 6 June denial by the Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar.
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Clampdown on terror
On the eve of the Modi-Imran meeting, much more significant on Pakistan’s part is the shutting down of various camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in recent days, including major terror training camps of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) at Sawai Nala in Muzaffarabad, and at Kalch Samhanj and Garhon Jundla in Mirpur, said a report in The Economic Times.
According to Ministry of Home Affairs sources, as many as 13 terror camps belonging to the JeM, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen have been shut down in recent weeks.
It is unlikely that the Bishkek meeting will announce a return to dialogue between the two countries, but it is clear that Bishkek is just the beginning.
Back-channel talks
Over the last several weeks, the Ministry of External Affairs, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s office as well as intelligence agencies have been undertaking significant back-channel conversations with Pakistan, said government sources.
In these carefully-calibrated talks, both sides are being offered face-savers.
India gets a demonstrable shut down of JeM camps — it was the JeM that took responsibility for the 14 February Pulwama suicide attack — besides the reopening of Pakistan’s airspace to India and other airlines.
Pakistan gets a meeting between Khan and Modi, a picture that is bound to speak a thousand words.
The government sources pointed out that “even if these camps are restored at some later stage” by Pakistani intelligence agencies, the fact remains that the shutting down of these camps is a “huge symbolic gain for India”.
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