NEW DELHI: It was shortly after 9am that India’s director common of army operations, Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai, acquired a name on the hotline from his Pakistani counterpart Maj Gen Kashif Abdullah. Abdullah sounded Ghai out on a ceasefire and, it’s realized, referred to the dialog US secretary of state Marco Rubio had with Pakistan Military chief Gen Asim Munir, in a transparent indication that the feelers have been coming from his boss.Ghai briefed his bosses on the event however acquired no instruction from them to interact with Abdullah. International secretary Vikram Misri made no point out of the contact made by Pakistan within the media briefing he held at 10.50am, the place he disclosed the losses that IAF had inflicted on Pakistan’s airbases. IAF had stepped up assaults by the point Rubio known as overseas minister S Jaishankar round 11am. In actual fact, IAF stored urgent on the escalation pedal after the dialog with Jaishankar the place the latter, going by his put up on X, seems to have maintained that “India’s method has at all times been measured and accountable and stays so”.If Rubio had insisted on rapid de-escalation, his pitch definitely didn’t have a lot resonance on the assembly PM Modi held with defence minister Rajnath Singh, NSA A Ok Doval, Chief of Defence Employees Anil Chauhan and the three service chiefs – Gen Upendra Dwivedi, Adm Dinesh Tripathi and Air Chief Marshal AP Singh – and chiefs of IB and RAW, Tapan Deka and Ravi Sinha.Sources mentioned the contributors have been unanimous on consolidating the higher hand that India had – one thing that was acknowledged additionally by Pakistan when it reached out for ceasing hostilities.The assembly additionally took under consideration the benefits India would have had going ahead: excessive morale of forces, enough firepower, comfy fiscal scenario, worldwide sympathy and the ace within the type of ‘blue water’ Indian Navy.No marvel, when India and Pakistan reached an understanding simply a few hours later, it got here as a shock to many who scrambled to seek out clues to the sudden flip.CNN cited defence sources to say it was US vice-president J D Vance’s name to Modi on Friday the place he shared US intelligence about Pakistan’s plans for a harmful escalation: maybe shorthand to be used of nukes, which made India relent.However that additionally gave the impression to be an insufficient rationalization. For one, Pakistan has at all times talked openly about its willingness to make use of its nukes. For one more, India had steadily moved larger on the escalation ladder for the total 24 hours after Vance’s purported counsel. In actual fact, it had on Saturday mocked Pakistan when it known as a gathering of the Nationwide Command Authority, the physique which offers with its nuclear arsenal, solely to name it off.The absence of any response on the pause in hostilities from Modi, house minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, even BJP, solely deepened the puzzle.