Pakistan Oversells Jaishankar-Sadiq Handshake; India Dismisses Diplomatic Significance

• Pakistan's Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq hyped a brief handshake with India's EAM S Jaishankar in Dhaka as "surprising" and "carefully planned."
• The interaction occurred on the sidelines of Khaleda Zia's last rites, marking the first visible contact since the May 2025 conflict.
• Sadiq claimed Jaishankar initiated the handshake, portraying it as a calculated diplomatic move by India.
• New Delhi firmly dismissed the exchange as routine protocol, stressing it was not bilateral engagement or a shift in India's stance.
• India reiterated that normalisation of ties depends on an environment free of cross-border terrorism, and the handshake indicates no thaw.

Why It Matters: Pakistan is overselling a routine handshake for diplomatic relevance; India maintains no policy shift.