- Relief in border towns on Sunday morning as ceasefire holds.
- President Trump pledges increased trade, Kashmir solution.
- Ceasefire reached after US diplomacy and pressure.
A fragile ceasefire was holding between Pakistan and India on Sunday, after hours of overnight fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours, as US President Donald Trump said he would work to provide a solution regarding Kashmir.
The two countries, born out of British colonial rule in 1947, have gone to war three times — twice over the region of Kashmir.
Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan both rule parts of Kashmir but claim it in full.
New Delhi blames Islamabad for an insurgency in IIOJK that began in 1989 and has killed tens of thousands. It also claims Pakistan-based groups for attacks elsewhere in India — a claim consistently rejected by the government in Islamabad.
Pakistan says it provides only moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people.
Recently, the arch rivals were involved in intense firing for four days, the worst in nearly three decades, with missiles and drones being fired at each other’s military installations and dozens of people killed.
A ceasefire agreement was reached after diplomacy and pressure from the United States, but within hours, artillery fire was witnessed in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), the centre of much of the fighting.
Blasts from air-defence systems boomed in cities near the border under blackout, similar to the previous two evenings, according to authorities, residents and Reuters witnesses.
Late on Saturday, India had violated the understanding reached to stop firing. In response, Pakistan said it was committed to the ceasefire and blamed India for the violations.
By dawn, the fighting and explosions reported overnight had died down on both sides of the border, according to Reuters witnesses.
Power was restored in most areas along India’s border towns after a blackout the previous night.
Trump praised leaders of both countries for agreeing to halt the aggression.
“While not even discussed, I am going to increase trade, substantially, with both of these great nations. Additionally, I will work with you both to see if… a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
In the border city of Amritsar, home to the Golden Temple revered by Sikhs, a siren sounded in the morning to resume normal activities brought a sense of relief and people were seen out on the roads.
The fighting started on Wednesday, two weeks after 26 men were killed in an attack targeting Hindus in IIOJK’s Pahalgam.
“Ever since the day 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.
Officials in Pakistan said there was some firing in Bhimber in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) overnight but nowhere else, and there were no casualties.
The combined death toll in the recent skirmishes has reached nearly 70, officials have said.
“More than me, my family is happy because my children and wife have been calling me every hour to check on me. Thank God the ceasefire happened,” Guruman Singh, a security guard in Amritsar told Reuters.
