As tensions cool, Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan returns to Islamabad

Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria returned to Islamabad on Saturday as tensions between India and Pakistan cooled. According to news agency ANI citing sources, Bisaria has been asked to articulate India’s expectations from Pakistan more directly. He will resume office soon. After Indian Air Force’s strike on JeM camp inside Pakistan, the two nuclear-armed neighbours came on the brink of war. However, both countries acted maturely and soon resolved the crisis that flared up after a terrorist attack on security forces in Pulwama.

Following the crisis, India has given fresh directions to its envoy to Islamabad and he will now engage on urgent issues with not just Pakistan, but diplomates of other countries posted there.

"High Commissioner of India to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria, is returning to Islamabad after having completed his consultations in India. He will reach Islamabad on 9 March 2019 and resume his duties," MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in response to a media query.

On Friday, Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood met Prime Minister Imran Khan and took his advice on Indo-Pak relations before returning to his post in New Delhi. Mehmood is also scheduled to return to New Delhi and resume duties on Saturday.

Both India and Pakistan had called back their envoys for consultations following flare-up of tensions between the neighbours in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 42 CRPF personnel and injured dozens of others in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in aerial combat and captured its pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, who was later handed over to India on March 1 as "a gesture of peace" and the first step towards negotiation between the countries.