De-Escalate, avoid another India-Pakistan war —Statement by CPI(ML) Liberation on launch of Operation Sindoor

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation Central Committee statement in the wake of Operation Sindoor:

The Government of India and Indian Armed Forces have informed the country about the demolition of nine terror-training camps across Pakistan past midnight in the early hours of 7 May. The Indian authorities have attributed the operation to credible intelligence inputs and have described it as a precise and restrained response carried out with a calibrated and non-escalatory approach. Pakistan however talks of civilian casualties including women and children. In the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, there are already reports of cross-border firing and several civilian deaths in Jammu and Kashmir.

Clearly there are alarming signs of yet another Indo-Pak war looming large. All efforts must be made to prevent a war between the two nuclear-powered neighbours and explore the whole range of non-military diplomatic options to curb terrorism and deescalate tension.

The Government of India has also announced an extensive exercise of mock drills in more than two hundred centres across the country. The last time mock drills had happened on such a big scale was in 1971 when India and Pakistan had actually been involved in a major war. While mock drills are techniques of bolstering security by spreading public alertness, we must make sure that such drills do not vitiate India