Ever since the deadly attack on Uri killing 18 Indian soldiers, the tensions between India and Pakistan have only escalated. The Indians took no time in declaring Pakistan was behind the Uri attack. This was followed by a war rhetoric in both countries. India was under a lot of pressure to act and act it did -- but after a lot of confusing signals.

The first Modi speech talked of war but of another kind -- it addressed the people of Pakistan and vowed to wage a war against poverty and illiteracy. In the same speech, he pledged to isolate Pakistan internationally as "an exporter of terrorism" compared to his own country which exports software. This was followed by declarations from India jepoardising the Indus Water Treaty, refusing to attend the Saarc summit in Pakistan and even withdrawing the MFN status.

Despite the war-like atmosphere, it was thought that sanity would prevail, India would stick to its "strategic restraint" policy and no actual exchange of fire would take place between the two countries. As tensions subside, the two sides would agree to sit together to find a solution. On September 29, the Indian side held a formal presser to say it has conducted surgical strikes inside Pakistan. On its part, the Pakistani side claimed there were firing incidents along LoC to which they have given a "befitting reply".

Read also: Pakistan-India standoff

Today’s Special Report was aimed at capturing the standoff between the two countries. It did not envisage any surgical strikes. One hopes that things would only start normalising after this extreme step and sooner than later. One hopes that the world powers would intervene to stop these two nuclear powers from pursuing their misadventures. One hopes the standoff comes to an end soon.