Indian-Pakistani ceasefire and armed-nuclear ceasefire in the Line of Control clashed between the Pakistan and India
People on the Indian side of the Line of Control say that their troops opened fire on the Pakistan side. The fighting subsided by Sunday morning.
Officials in both India and Pakistan claimed the other side called for a stop to fire. Talks between the Indian and Pakistani directors-general of military operations were held on Monday to ensure commitment to the ceasefire, the Indian defense ministry said in a statement.
As part of the ceasefire, the nuclear-armed neighbors agreed to immediately stop all firing and military action on land, in the air and at sea. They accused each other of violating the deal.
Pakistan has not uttered a word about the deal since it was announced. India has not acknowledged anyone beyond the military relationship with the Pakistanis.
Both armies have engaged in daily fighting since Wednesday along the rugged and mountainous Line of Control, which is marked by razor wire coils, watchtowers and bunkers that snake across foothills populated by villages, tangled bushes and forests.
India and Pakistan ceasefire holds for a 2nd day: “Water and blood cannot float together,” says Vinay Kwatra, the ambassador to the United States
On Monday, children returned to school, airports reopened across border areas of India and Pakistan, and families mourned the deaths of loved ones as a ceasefire held for the second day.
Pakistan denied any connection to the attack and demanded India show proof of its claim. Asked repeatedly about that evidence, India’s Ambassador to the United States Vinay Kwatra told NPR last week that it would come out “in fullness of time.”
The ceasefire has not affected other measures that India announced after the late-April attack — most importantly, its suspension of a water treaty that divides six South Asian rivers between it and Pakistan. Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN described the treaty’s suspension as a threat to his country’s people.
“Water and blood cannot flow together,” he said in a televised address to Indians. “If there are talks with Pakistan, it will be only on terrorism; and if there are talks with Pakistan, it will be only on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,” he said.
Civilians in both countries welcomed the stop in fighting. “The ceasefire brings that sigh of relief,” said 34-year-old Babar Rashid, who lives in Bahawalpur, a Pakistani city some 90 miles from the Indian border. India said it was targeting terrorists on the outskirts of the city. He said that he was pleased with Pakistan’s efforts to bloody India’s nose. Now, he warned, India ‘”should not make any kind of misadventure.”
India’s military has killed “terrorists” in Pakistan. There were many deaths of civilians during the strikes by India and Pakistan between last Wednesday and Saturday.
Source: India-Pakistan ceasefire holds for a 2nd day
The Indians and Pakistanis of a Kashmiri village whose children have been killed by a ceasefire, and the Kashmir-Indian ashram
Sarfaraz Ahmad Mir, a cousin of the twins, said the family had moved to Poonch three months ago, for the schools. He said his uncle, the children’s father, was also seriously wounded. Mir’s aunt didn’t have the heart to tell her husband that the children had been killed. “He doesn’t even know that there’s a ceasefire,” Mir said. His aunt will tell him that the children are at home when he visits her in the hospital. She cries when she leaves the room.
On the Indian side, a few dozen ended up sheltering in an ashram on the outskirts of Jammu, a city in Indian-administered Kashmir. Women and men were indoors in a basement and prayer hall, respectively. Many of the displaced were farmers from a village called Pargwal, near the de-facto border.
Some residents jumped into irrigation canals and were forced to take buses to leave the village after the firing began. “Even then, there were bullets whizzing past us,” he said. Despite the ceasefire, residents said they weren’t sure it was safe yet to return.
In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Sikander Hayat Janjua, 54, emerged Saturday from his bunker in his village of Nikyal, barely a thousand feet from the Line of Control. He said they were in distress and unable to fetch water, feed livestock or let their children play in the sun.
Janjua said they want the ceasefire to last forever. “Those who celebrate war, on both sides, are illiterate,” he said, using a word sometimes referring pejoratively in Pakistan to a stupid person.
Pakistan claims it shot down five Indian aircraft, including at least one French-made fighter jet, the Rafale. India has not commented on the claims. When questioned on Sunday about them, Air Marshal A.K. Bharti responded at a press briefing by saying, “Losses are a part of combat.”