Avoid escalation, keep communication channels open, US to India, Pakistan

New Delhi: President Donald Trump’s administration in Washington, D.C., has asked New Delhi and Islamabad to “avoid escalation” after India as part of 'Operation Sindoor' hit terrorist infrastructure at Muridke and Bahawalpur in Pakistan, as well as in Kotli and Muzaffarabad in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) areas illegally occupied by Pakistan.

The US also asked India and Pakistan to keep channels of communication open.

Trump’s National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, had phone calls with his counterparts in New Delhi and Islamabad, Ajit Doval and Lt Gen Muhammad Asim Malik, after the fighter jets of the Indian Air Force carried out the “Operation Sindoor” to respond to the April 22 killing of 26 people, mostly tourists, at Baisaran near Pahalgam in J&K by the terrorists owing allegiance to the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba based in Pakistan.

Rubio, who also heads the US State Department, had phone calls with Doval and Malik after Trump, himself, while talking to journalists in Washington, D.C., expressed hope that the latest flare-up between India and Pakistan would end quickly.

“Earlier this afternoon, @SecRubio spoke to the national security advisors from India and Pakistan. He urged both to keep lines of communication open and avoid escalation,” the US Department of State posted on X after Rubio’s phone calls with Doval and Malik.

Doval conveyed to Rubio that India’s actions against terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and the J&K areas under the control of Pakistan had been focused and precise.

“They (the actions) were measured, responsible and designed to be non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani civilian, economic or military targets have been hit. Only known terror camps were targeted,” the Embassy of India in Washington, D.C. stated in a press release issued early on Wednesday.

United States Vice President J D Vance recently stated that President Donald Trump’s administration would expect that India would respond to the terrorist attack in a way that would not lead to a regional conflict. He had also urged Pakistan to cooperate with India to bring the terrorists to justice.

Vance and his family were in Jaipur when the terrorists carried out the carnage in J&K. He had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi the previous day.

Malik has been heading Pakistan’s military spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and has recently been assigned the additional responsibility of the National Security Advisor by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government in Islamabad.

He told Rubio that India’s Operation Sindoor was an act of “blatant aggression” violating the sovereignty of Pakistan. A spokesperson of the Pakistan Armed Forces earlier noted that the fighter jets of the Indian Air Force, remained within the airspace of India but used “standoff weapons” targeting the civilian population at Muridke and Bahawalpur on Pakistan’s side of the undisputed stretch of its border with India, as well as in Kotli and Muzaffarabad across its Line of Control with India.

“India’s act of aggression has resulted in the martyrdom of civilians, including women and children. This act of aggression has also caused a grave threat to commercial air traffic,” the spokesperson of the Pakistan Armed Forces said, condemning India’s “cowardly action”, which, according to him, flagrantly violated the Charter of the United Nations, international laws, and established norms of inter-state relations.