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Pakistan, India Ceasefire 05/12 07:09
NEW DELHI (AP) -- Indian and Pakistani authorities said Monday there was no
firing reported overnight along the heavily militarized region between their
countries, the first time in recent days the two nations were not shooting at
each other.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all military actions on
land, in the air and at the sea Saturday in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire to stop
the escalating hostilities between the two nuclear-armed rivals that threatened
regional peace.
"The night remained largely peaceful across Jammu and Kashmir, and other
areas along the international border," the Indian army said in a statement,
adding that no incidents had been reported.
Senior military officials from India and Pakistan are scheduled to speak
later Monday to assess if ceasefire was holding. There were fears it would not
hold after they accused each other of violations just hours after it was
announced.
Local government officials in Pakistan-administered Kashmir reported no
incidents of cross-border firing along the Line of Control and said that
civilians displaced by recent skirmishes between Pakistani and Indian forces
were returning to their homes.
Pakistan's military spokesperson, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif, said late Sunday
that Pakistan remains committed to upholding the ceasefire and will not be the
first to violate it.
He also confirmed that senior military officials from both nations would
speak on by phone on Monday.
Soon after the ceasefire announcement on Saturday, Pakistan reopened all of
its airports and restored flight operations. India followed up Monday with
reopening of all the 32 airports that were shut temporarily across northern and
western regions due to the flare up in tensions.
"It's informed that these airports are now available for civil aircraft
operations with immediate effect," the Airports Authority of India said in a
statement.
The militaries of the two countries have been engaged in one of their most
serious confrontations in decades since last Wednesday, when India struck
targets inside Pakistan it said were affiliated with militants responsible for
the massacre of 26 tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The tourists, mostly
Indian Hindu men, were brutally killed in front of their families in the meadow
town of Pahalgam last month.
India accused Pakistan of backing the militants who carried out the
massacre, a charge Islamabad denied. The incident first led to a spat of
tit-for-tat diplomatic measures by both the nations, sending their bilateral
ties to a near historic low.
The two expelled each other's diplomats, shut their airspace, land borders,
and suspended a crucial water treaty.
After Wednesday's strikes in Pakistan, both sides exchanged heavy fires
along their de facto border in the restive Kashmir region followed by missile
and drone strikes into each other's territories, mainly targeting military
installations and airbases. Dozens of civilians were killed on both the sides
in heavy shelling, the two countries said.
The Indian military on Sunday for the first time claimed its strikes into
Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan last week killed more than 100
militants, including prominent leaders.
Lt. Gen. Rajiv Ghai, the director general of India's military operations,
who will be talking to his Pakistani counterpart on Monday, said India's armed
forces struck nine militant infrastructure and training facilities, including
sites of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group that India blames for carrying out major
militant strikes in India and the disputed region of Kashmir.
Ghai said at least 35 to 40 Pakistani soldiers were killed in clashes along
the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir
region between India and Pakistan. Five Indian soldiers were also killed, he
said.
Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Thursday said his
country's armed forces had killed 40 to 50 Indian soldiers along the Line of
Control. Pakistani military also claimed to have shot down five Indian fighter
jets and inflected heavy losses on Indian military installations by targeting
26 locations in India.
The Associated Press couldn't independently verify the claims made by India
and Pakistan.
Air Chief Marshal AK Bharti, the director general India's air operations
told a news conference on Monday that despite "minor damage (s) incurred, all
our military bases and air defense systems continue to remain fully
operational, and ready to undertake any further missions, should the need so
arise."
Bharti reiterated that New Delhi's fight was "with terrorists, and not with
Pakistan military or its civilians."
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