A fragile ceasefire was holding between India and Pakistan on Sunday, after hours of overnight fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours, as US president Donald Trump said he will work to provide a solution regarding Kashmir.
The arch rivals were locked in intense fighting for four days, the worst in nearly three decades, firing missiles and drones at each other’s military installations, killing almost 70 people in all in the two countries.
A ceasefire agreement was reached after diplomacy and pressure from the US, but within hours, artillery fire was witnessed in Indian Kashmir, the centre of much of the fighting.
Blasts from air-defence systems boomed in cities near the border under a blackout, similar to the previous two evenings, according to authorities, residents and Reuters witnesses.
Late on Saturday, India said Pakistan had violated the understanding to stop firing and that the Indian armed forces had been instructed to “deal strongly” with any repetition.
In response, Pakistan said it was committed to the ceasefire and blamed India for the violations.
The fighting and explosions died down by dawn, according to Reuters witnesses, and power was restored in most border areas in India after a blackout on Saturday night.
Mr Trump praised leaders of both countries for agreeing to halt the aggression and said he would “substantially” increase trade with them, although this was “not even discussed”.
“I will work with you both to see if ... a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan each rule a part of Kashmir but claim it in full, and have twice gone to war over the region.
India blames Pakistan for an insurgency in its part of the territory, but Pakistan says it provides only moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiri separatists.
Pakistan’s ministry for foreign affairs welcomed Mr Trump’s statement on Sunday and added that “any just and lasting settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute ... must ensure the realisation of the fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people, including their inalienable right to self-determination”.
Among those most affected by the fighting were residents in border areas on either side, many who fled their homes when the fighting began on Wednesday, two weeks after a deadly attack in Indian Kashmir’s Pahalgam that India said was backed by Islamabad and which sparked the current round of fighting.
Pakistan denied the accusation.
In the Indian border city of Amritsar, home to the Golden Temple revered by Sikhs, a siren sounded on Sunday morning to resume normal activities brought relief from the tension and people were seen out on the roads.
“Ever since the terrorists attacked people in Pahalgam, we have been shutting our shops very early and there was an uncertainty. I am happy that at least there will be no bloodshed on both sides,” Satvir Singh Alhuwalia (48), a shopkeeper in Amritsar, told Reuters.
In Indian Kashmir’s Uri, a key power plant that was damaged in a Pakistani drone attack is still under repair.
“The project has suffered minor damage ... We have stopped generation as the transmission line has been damaged,” said an official from state-run NHPC, India’s biggest hydropower company, who did not want to be identified.
Officials from the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Even with the ceasefire in place, the Indian air force said on Sunday that unidentified “operations” were still “ongoing”, while officials in Pakistan said around the same time there was some firing in Pakistani Kashmir’s Bhimber overnight but nowhere else, and there were no casualties. – Reuters
