RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Early Saturday morning,
On an already tense day, Ahmad Subhan was woken up by a deafening explosion that had rattled the windows of his residence, not far from the Nur Khan Air Base in Rawalpindi. This was the start of a dramatic military escalation between two nuclear-armed powers, India and Pakistan.
With air raid sirens blaring and fighter jets streaking across the sky, South Asia was on the brink of war. For the next eight hours, a barrage of missile and drone attacks played out, setting off one of the most dangerous confrontations between the two countries in decades.
Pakistan reported that Indian forces had launched pointed attacks against two major air bases, including Nur Khan, a crucial facility near Islamabad.
Indian officials said that they had hit operational centers that harbored “terrorist infrastructure,” which they said was an appropriate response to a fatal attack in Kashmir weeks before that killed 26 people.
As the civil war heated up, the threat of nuclear escalation became immediate. Nur Khan Air Base, a little over a mile from Pakistan’s nuclear nerve center, sounded alarm bells not just at home, but also in global capitals alike.
As the violence intensified, civilians like Subhan sprinted to get their families away from the fighting. “We had no sooner transferred the injured from an ambulance with the first blast, and we heard a second explosion,” he said.
Behind the Scenes: A Diplomatic Offensive to De-Escalate
What the world got was an area on the brink of catastrophe. What it didn’t realize at first was the intense diplomatic pressure that was mounting in the background.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance were deeply involved in back-channel negotiations with leaders in both countries, officials in the know said. American officials spent 72 hours conducting, in the words of an insider, “basically a marathon session of telephone diplomacy.”
Vice President Vance, who had previously gone on record that the U.S. would not intervene with a foreign conflict, but, made a persona-to-person call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. The goal: a warning that the situation was spinning out of control and that growing action was needed to prevent a full-blown war.
Modi was said to have told them that if Pakistan escalates, India would do so even more. Within hours, however, Pakistan retaliated with strikes of its own on Indian positions, stoking fears that the subcontinent could hurtle toward a nuclear showdown.
Blinking Lights and Nuclear Fears
With the dawn of May 10, both sides ramped up their actions. India’s jets reportedly deployed BrahMos missiles—supersonic missiles Pakistan thinks have nuclear capabilities (India says they are conventional).
Pakistan also launched its own air strikes and convened a meeting of its National Command Authority (NCA), which oversees its nuclear weapons. Although officials later downplayed the importance of the N.C.A. meeting, the mere mention of it fueled concerns of a more widespread conflict.
American officials, now deeply involved, pressed both sides to end the fighting. Rubio addressed his remarks to Pakistan’s army chief, General Asim Munir, and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, and India’s foreign minister, S. Jaishankar. Messages were sent that each was willing to stand down — if the other would do likewise.
Dar said he was later told that the Indians were prepared to hold fire. I said, ‘If they stop, we’ll stop, but they can’t stop.’
Ceasefire Achieved
Indian and Pakistani military officers spoke directly in the early afternoon. The Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries spoke to formalise a truce. The call happened almost two days after India first asked for help and was said to be expedited by diplomatic spadework done by Washington.
That night, President Donald Trump declared front line fighting by both sides would end. “Congratulations to both countries, this is a great sign of the common sense and great intelligence of both countries!” he posted on social media.
A Crisis Averted—for Now
Though the ceasefire offered relief to many millions across the region, analysts cautioned that the risk of new conflict was still very high. Christopher Clary, a defense specialist, warned, “If you’re playing Russian roulette and you make it through, the lesson is not to play again.”
The weekend’s events underscored the fragility of peace in South Asia and the importance of international diplomacy. Tensions between India and Pakistan might be de-escalating but the underlying conflict — especially over Kashmir — has no end in sight.
What is clear is that when nuclear-armed powers clash, it is not just regional stability that is threatened, but also global security.
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