Not planning any new air strikes at LoC, situation stabilising: India’s envoy to Russia

India is not planning to conduct any fresh air strikes in Pakistan or Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the situation is slowly returning to normalcy, India’s Ambassador to Russia D Bala Venkatesh Varma has told Russia-backed Sputnik news agency in an interview.

"No, we have plans at the present moment", the Russian news agency quoted Venkatesh Varma as saying.

The Indian envoy was further quoted as saying that India’s fight wasn’t against Pakistan, but terrorist groups operating against India from the Pakistani soil.

"This is not a struggle between India and Pakistan. It is a question of India's protection of its interests in the face of the threat from terrorist groups. India is not the only country in the region that suffers from their actions", Varma said, as per Sputnik.

Varma went on to reject any offer of mediation from a third country in the ongoing crisis between the two neighbours, stating that no such offer had been formally extended yet.

“No country has offered to mediate between India and Pakistan… There was a telephone conversation between President Putin and [Indian] Prime Minister Modi last evening, and the point of mediation was not mentioned at all,” he has been quoted as saying.

The comments by India’s envoy come a day after Indian Air Force (IAF)’s wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman was handed back to India from Pakistan’s captivity, in what Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan termed as a “gesture of peace.”

Notably, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a cryptic warning during an address to a gathering of scientists earlier this week, stating that Indian forces had just completed a “pilot project.” Observers have interpreted Modi’s remarks as an indication of India planning something bigger in the wake of the Balakot raid by the IAF.

However, heavy exchanges between the armies of two countries took place last night, causing civilian casualties on both sides.

Tensions between the two countries escalated after Indian fighters bombed terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp near Balakot deep inside Pakistan early Tuesday. It came 12 days after the JeM claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in Kashmir, killing 40 soldiers.

(with PTI inputs)