This photo taken from a Pakistani army post shows an overview of the Bandla Valley in Bhimber district near the Pakistan-administered Kashmir Line of Control (LoC).
Issam Ahmed | AFP | Getty Images
India and Pakistan issued a joint statement in which both sides agreed to cease firing along their disputed border in Kashmir as of Thursday.
The directors general of the military operations in the two countries held talks in which they analyzed the situation along the Line of Control – the de facto border between the Indian and Pakistani parts of Kashmir – in a “free, sincere and cordial atmosphere”, according to the statement. posted by India.
Frequent conflicts and cross-border bombings along the Line of Control in recent months have reportedly killed several civilians.
“In the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and lasting peace along the borders, the two (Directors-General) have agreed to address each other’s key issues and concerns that tend to disturb peace and lead to violence,” the statement said. communiqué. He added that both sides will use existing mechanisms, including a helpline to resolve tensions and misunderstandings.
Kashmir has always been a controversial issue for the two rivals with nuclear weapons. Pakistan and India claim both areas, but control only parts of it.
They waged several wars over the mountainous region. In 2019, tensions escalated when both countries carried out retaliatory airstrikes against each other, worrying about a war that broke out 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 territories of the union of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Pakistan has criticized the move.
This week, the Indian media reported that Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan told a conference in Sri Lanka that Kashmir is the only dispute his country has with India and can only be resolved through dialogue.
India responded separately to the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday, saying that Pakistan has “one of the worst human rights records in the world” and that it should ” he puts his own house in order, before venturing to a finger in India. “