WASHINGTON: The United States was involved in “intensive counselling” during the recent crisis along the Line of Control, urging both India and Pakistan to revive direct talks, says the State Department.

Last month relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated rapidly after clashes along the LoC left several soldiers dead.

The Indian media highlighted a report claiming that Pakistani forces had decapitated an Indian soldier but later some Indian newspapers reported that Indian troops too had decapitated Pakistani soldiers.

Last week, Pakistan also submitted a report to the United Nations, detailing how Indians had disfigured Pakistani soldiers in the LoC clashes.

However, relations between the two countries have improved since, with both sides restoring people-to-people contacts and cross-border trade.

Asked if the United States had played a role in reducing tensions between India and Pakistan during this crisis, State Department’s spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters that it had, through US ambassadors in both Delhi and Islamabad.

The two ambassadors, she said, had been “intensively counselling direct dialogue. And we’re very gratified that that was restarted.”