I will try to keep it short and simple for our own Indian friends.
It was inevitable India will ask for the ceasefire and lack of escalation.
Politically speaking, if Modi is seen as actively taking action against terrorists, it's good for India. He tried that against Pakistan by 300 imaginary Jaish dying in 2 minutes as soon as Indian aircraft intruded.. But if MODI takes INDIA TO WAR, HE WONT GET reelected. Not many people in their right mind, would want war, as a source of electing someone.
And the second major reason was the religious (yes you may laugh) and national aspect of it. Nationalism for a country can make you do a lot of things such as defending your country, fighting for the civilians of the country and making them proud. However, in any war, you must have "an end result goal in mind for the army or air force to succeed".
Hindus don't have much to look forward to with their lack of belief in afterlife, or their belief in re-incarnation as a cow in afterlife is hardly something to look forward to. While Muslims of Pakistan will happily embrace martyrdom at the call of the country as they have more than nationalism aspect to look forward to. Their religion is their beacon.
Religion is a great mass motivator. It can lead a group of people to achieve unrealistic goals and help a group of people organize themselves better to achieve output.
The fact that India doesn't war is based on that they have no "religious background" to stand on. Their army has nothing to fall back on. What should they die for? Their country? Sometimes that isn't enough.
So the country which has everything to lose (economy, unhappy soldiers, prosperous people) will usually call ceasefire, and that is India in this case.
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