Lahore explosion, heightening India-Pakistan tensions

A massive explosion recently took place in Lahore, a key city of Pakistan's Punjab province, that has further aggravated the already escalating diplomatic and military tensions between Pakistan and India. Pakistan's mainstream media Geo News and Reuters' eyewitnesses said that the blast occurred in Johar Town locality of ​​Lahore. At least 3 individuals have been confirmed killed in this explosion and over 20 individuals injured so far.

Straight after the incident, Pakistan's National Security Advisor Dr. Moeed Yousuf made a sensational statement that the attack was plotted from Indian soil and sponsored by India's intelligence agency 'RAW'. In his own words, Pakistan has indubitable evidence of Indian linkages with the attackers. The Pakistani government referred to it as an act of 'political terrorism' and called for international intervention against India. The Indian government has promptly rejected this charge as "baseless and politically motivated" on the other hand. The Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman declared that Pakistan had always blamed India for the purpose of concealing its own internal failures. India was not involved at all in this explosion and Pakistan's accusations about this are mere attempts to distract.

When this blast occurred, India was carrying out an anti-terror operation named 'Operation Sindoor', in which some terrorist camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir were targeted by Rafale fighter jets. As per India's claim, numerous terrorist camps were targeted and destroyed. But Pakistan claims that its innocent citizens were hit in this attack.

Because of these events, a war-like scenario has again arisen in South Asia. India is, on the one hand, stepping up military action in the guise of combating terrorism, while Pakistan is making complaints against India in the international community. In the fact that both nations possess nuclear weapons, this tension is an alarming scenario not only for the two nations, but also for the whole region and the world.

Experts are convinced that if the bilateral diplomatic negotiations are not initiated at this time, the situation will become even more volatile.  Non-violent negotiations, rather than war, could be the sole means of extrication from this crisis.