Pakistan and India have nearly completed pullback of their reinforced troop deployment on borders to levels before their 88-hour conflict earlier this month that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene and work out a ceasefire between the two nuclear powers.
The two South Asian neighbors first engaged in heavy shelling across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region and then fought aerial fights including launching missile attacks against each other.
In a dogfight lasting more than an hour on the night of May 7, when close to one hundred warplanes tested each other in a high-tech radar and missile attack.
Pakistan shot down five Indian fighter jets including three French Rafale, which Indian officials have reluctantly acknowledged weeks after the clashes.
However, it is not clear how many troops each side moved to the border during the conflict along the Line of Control in Kashmir or the international working boundary.
The news of the development was broken by Reuters news agency which cited General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee as saying that the two sides have almost completed the pullback of troops to the levels before the clashes broke out.
Indian officials have not commented on the report yet.
The tensions between the two sides rocketed after a terror attack in Pahalgam tourist resort in the Indian-controlled Kashmir region, which is strategically important for both countries. Gunmen killed 26 tourists. New Delhi immediately blamed a Pakistani link behind the attack.
Indian officials said a group affiliated with Pakistan’s banned militant outfit Laskhar-e-Taiba was responsible for the attack.
Islamabad rejected the charge.
India suspended Indus Water Treaty that governs fair distribution of river water flowing downstream from the Himalayan region. The two countries also kicked out each other’s diplomats and cancelled visas of visiting citizens.
President Donald Trump after announcing the ceasefire said he had prevented a nuclear war between the two countries that would have resulted in a huge loss of lives.
