This photograph taken from a Pakistani army post shows an overview of the Bandla Valley, in the Bhimber district, near the Control Line (LoC) in Kashmir administered by Pakistan.
Issam Ahmed | AFP | Getty Images
India and Pakistan issued a joint statement saying that both sides had agreed to stop shooting along their disputed border in Kashmir as of Thursday.
The directors-general of military operations of the two countries held discussions in which they analyzed the situation along the Line of Control – the de facto border between parts of Indian and Pakistani Kashmir – in a “free, frank and cordial atmosphere”, according to the statement published by India.
Frequent clashes and cross-border bombings along the Line of Control in recent months have killed several civilians.
“In the interest of achieving a mutually beneficial and sustainable peace across borders, the two (directors-general) agreed to address the central issues and mutual concerns that are likely to disrupt the peace and lead to violence,” says the statement. He added that both sides will use existing mechanisms, including a hotline to resolve tensions and misunderstandings.
Kashmir has always been a controversial issue for the two nuclear weapons rivals. Pakistan and India claim the entire area, but control only parts of it.
They fought several wars in the mountainous region. In 2019, tensions rose when the two countries carried out retaliatory air strikes against each other, raising fears of a war in South Asia.
Since then, India has stripped the state of Jammu and Kashmir of its special status that allowed it to make its own laws and transformed the state into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Pakistan criticized the change.
This week, Indian media reported that Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said at a conference in Sri Lanka that Kashmir is his country’s only dispute with India and that it can only be resolved through dialogue.
Separately, India responded at the 46th Session of the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday, where it said that Pakistan has “one of the worst human rights records in the world” and that it should “put its own house in order, before venture to point a finger in India. “