Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to respond to India's attacks on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which were carried out in the early hours of Wednesday.
This response could determine whether the two countries will be able to find a way out of this situation, or whether they will be involved in an escalating confrontation.
Given India's message that it will retaliate if Pakistan's next move goes too far, Islamabad may decide to keep any response "below a certain threshold," Madan said.
Pakistan's Defense Minister, Khawaja Asif, has said that Islamabad will only strike military targets in India, not civilians.
Recent statements from Pakistan suggest that it is considering a measured response, Madan said, adding, however, that no possibility can be ruled out.
On Wednesday evening, India and Pakistan fired shells at each other across their de facto border in the disputed region of Kashmir, according to a statement from the Indian defense spokesman in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The Pakistani army had fired "small arms and artillery shells" across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir, to which the Indian army "responded proportionately," said Lieutenant Colonel Suneel Bartwal, India's defense spokesman in Jammu.
The armies of the two countries have exchanged gunfire along the Line of Control almost daily since the April massacre at the heart of that escalation. Gunmen attacked a picturesque resort in Indian-administered Kashmir and killed 26 civilians, mostly Indian tourists.
Earlier on Wednesday, an Indian defense source told CNN that overnight shelling by the Pakistani military across the Line of Control had killed 12 civilians and injured 57 others. (A2 Televizion)
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