Thousands of people from the occupied northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir headed back to their homes near LoC on Wednesday, after Pakistan, Indian armies agreed to stop exchanging artillery fire following repeated recent clashes.
More than 50,000 people had taken shelter in schools and colleges in the Indian-occupied Kashmir, away from the shelling that officials say killed 12 people and wounded many more on both sides over the past few weeks. On Tuesday, their armies agreed to "fully implement" a 2003 ceasefire agreement.
"In case of any issue, restraint will be exercised and the matter will be resolved through utilisation of existing mechanisms of hotline contacts and border flag meetings at local commander's level," Pakistan's military said in a statement. Bacchan Lal, the headman of Abdullian village in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, who has been living in a college with 350 other people over the past two weeks, said such agreements rarely last long.
"They agree to respect the ceasefire several times every year but then they violate it again. Every time people are killed, cattle perish and we end up in such camps," he said. "We are in camps for the second time this year. We don't want this uncertainty. We want permanent peace as we had 30 years ago". Farmer Chuni Lal, 45, said he was worried about a delay in sowing premium Basmati rice this year because of the hostility.
He said tillers like him could not afford to miss the key planting season, urging the countries to find a lasting solution to the regular outbreaks of firing.
Occupied Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who runs the state with the support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party, welcomed the ceasefire agreement.
"This brings great relief to the people residing in the vicinity," she said on Twitter on Wednesday. "Peace on our borders is the first essential step to a larger understanding and I truly hope it sustains."
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