Pakistan Army reaching out to India: UK think tank

If reports are to be believed, the Pakistan Army is making efforts make ties with India better. Pakistan-based Dawn News cited a report by a think tank saying the change in the attitude of the Pakistani military is because it feels that peace and prosperity could be achieved only by ensuring military cooperation between the two neighbours.

The report, released in London, was prepared by UK-based think tank Royal Unites Services Institute. According to the report, a recent move by Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa to invite Indian military attache Sanjay Vishwasrao to Pakistan Day Military Parade in Islamabad shows that the relationship between India and Pakistan is “warming up”.

After two weeks, General Bajwa reportedly said that he wanted peace and dialogue with India.

The report said that India and Pakistan will also take part in joint military drills in Russia in September, with Chinese participation. "These initiatives come against a background of almost weekly exchanges of fire along the Line of Control in Kashmir," the report noted.

The report further said that senior Pakistani officer Lieutenant General Aamir Riaz headed the first ever high-level contact group with India as Director-General Military Operations.

According to the report, another top officer, Major General Ahmed Hayat, the Director General of analysis wing of the Inter-Services-Intelligence (ISI), authored the so-called "India Plan" in 2013, which tried to ascertain how and when Pakistan should approach India. General Hayat underscored that the Pakistani military would approach India after Islamabad strengthened it defence diplomacy without pressure or threats from Washington DC.

"It is a no-brainer that one cannot live in an environment of perpetual enmity with a neighbour six times your size, but the indicators have to be right," he said.

Meanwhile, India has rejected Pakistan`s offer of a transit trade dialogue on Afghan-Indian commerce, as per the report. The report further said that with a sustained approach by the Pakistani military to India, it could only be a matter of time before New Delhi agrees to at least talk to Islamabad for improving relations and pressing for peace and stability.

(With ANI inputs)