Kashmir villagers hopeful but sceptical it would hold

Pakistan, India agreed to cease fire in border from Thursday

Villagers living on both sides of the Line of Control dividing the Himalayan region of Kashmir welcomed an agreement between long-time foes India and Pakistan to stop shelling from each side, but some were sceptical it would hold.

The nuclear-armed neighbours signed a ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control (LoC) in 2003, but that has frayed in recent years and there have been mounting casualties.

In a joint statement on Thursday, India and Pakistan said they would observe a ceasefire. “It has given a new lease of life to us. We were living in constant fear of being hit,” said Laldin Khatana, the headman of Churnada village on the Indian side of the border.

Khatana said that two people had been killed last year by shelling in the hillside village, home to 1,600 people, many of whom gathered at a mausoleum to celebrate the new agreement.

Welcome announcement

“It was affecting our farming and grazing,” he told Reuters via telephone. “And children were scared to go to school.” Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan, which claim the region in full but rule only in part.

“The fresh announcement is welcome and can help us live a life free of fear, only if implemented in letter and in spirit,” said Danish Shaikh, a resident of Ban Chattar village in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir’s Neelum valley.

“Who knows how seriously they will stick to the fresh understanding?”

“This is good news indeed. Not just for us who are running businesses but for everyone,” Owais said of the agreement.