The way events unfolded after the Pulwama bombing and Pahalgam killings is strikingly similar, says a former diplomat.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called senior officials in India and Pakistan in an effort to defuse the crisis that followed last week’s deadly attack in Kashmir, the State Department said.

After a suicide bomb attack on troops in Indian-administered Kashmir at Pulwama in 2019, Gen Bajwa oversaw Pakistan's military response to Indian air raids but refrained from escalation, returning Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman and helping avert a full-blown war.