Pakistan’s new Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Tuesday said the situation along the Line of Control with India would improve soon, PTI reported. His statements follow his predecessor, General Raheel Sharif’s comments warning India against taking an “aggressive stance”, Reuters reported. General Raheel Sharif said, “India should know that mistaking our policy of patience for weakness would be dangerous,” Reuters reported.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday had appointed Bajwa the chief of army staff in Rawalpindi. An expert in Pakistani-occupied Kashmir affairs, Bajwa called on Islamabad’s media to help him reinforce the morale of troops in the world’s sixth largest army.

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Bajwa’s last appointment was as inspector-general of training and evaluation at the army’s general headquarters. He had previously commanded the 10 Corps that is responsible for security along the Pakistani side of the Line of Control. He also served with an United Nations mission in Congo alongside former Indian Army chief General Bikram Singh.

His appointment comes at a time when relations between Islamabad and New Delhi have worsened following the Indian Army’s surgical strikes on militant camps along the LoC on September 29.

On November 24, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup had said Pakistan violated the ceasefire agreement between the two countries 27 times between November 12 and November 21. The government also lodged a formal protest against the Pakistani Army targeting 18 villages along the LoC between November 16 and November 21, Swarup had said.

Similarly, Islamabad had claimed that three Pakistani soldiers and nine civilians were killed in cross-border firing when Indian troops launched a massive attack against Pakistani posts along the LoC. However, during unscheduled talks between the director-generals of military operations of the two countries, India said that the Army had only targeted locations from where Pakistani forces had carried out ceasefire violations.