New Delhi:Top intelligence officers from India and Pakistan held secret talks in Dubai in January in a new effort to calm military tension over Kashmir, people with close knowledge of the matter told Reuters in Delhi.
Ties between the nuclear-armed rivals have been on ice since the Pulwama terror attack on February 11, 2019, when 40 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed after a 22-year-old suicide bomber rammed an IED-laden vehicle into the security convoy carrying them. Days later, Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) had claimed responsibility for the attack. Twelve days after the attack, in the wee hours of February 26, Indian Air Force jets bombed the JeM camp in Balakot, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Months later, the Centre abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution that granted special status Jammu and Kashmir that led to outrage in Pakistan and the downgrading of diplomatic ties and suspension of bilateral trade.
However, the two governments have re-opened a back channel of diplomacy aimed at a modest roadmap to normalising ties over the next several months, the people said.