'Ready to talk for peace': Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif's offer to India

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday expressed willingness to hold talks "for peace" with India, even as tensions remained high following a recent spell of military confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

"We are ready to talk with it for peace," Shehbaz said during a visit to the Kamra air base in Pakistan's Punjab province.

Top leaders and military officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Army Chief Gen Asim Munir, and Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu accompanied him.

There, he met with officers and soldiers involved in the recent confrontation with India.

However, Sharif reiterated that the "conditions for peace" must include addressing the long-standing Kashmir issue.

India has always maintained that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are "integral and inalienable parts" of it.

'Talks with Pakistan will be only on terror': Jaishankar
Meanwhile, external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that the only issue which remains to be discussed on Kashmir is return of part of J&K that is under the illegal occupation of Pakistan (PoK).

"We are open to discussing that (return of PoK) with Pakistan. So I want you to spell out our positions very clearly. The government's position is very, very clear," he told media at the inauguration of the Honduras embassy.

He added that India's relations and dealings with Pakistan will remain strictly bilateral with a focus on cross-border terrorism. Jaishankar further called upon Pakistan to hand over terrorists accused of attacking India.

"That (bilateralism) has been a national consensus for years, and there is absolutely no change. The prime minister made it very clear that talks with Pakistan will be only on terror. Pakistan has a list of terrorists that needs to be handed over, and they have to shut down the terrorists’ infrastructure. They know what to do. We are prepared to discuss with them what is to be done about terrorism. Those are the talks which are feasible," said Jaishankar.

This was Sharif's second visit to a defence facility following the understanding reached between India and Pakistan on May 10.

What happened so far
To avenge the killings of 26 people in J&K's Pahalgam terror attack, India launched Operation Sindoor on the intervening night of May 6 and 7. Under the operation, the armed forces targeted nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, killing over 100 terrorists.

Pakistan then launched several missile and drone attacks on May 8, 9 and 10. Indian armed forces, in response, launched a fierce counter-attack on several Pakistani military installations, including Rafiqui, Murid, Chaklala, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur and Chunian.