A ceasefire appeared to hold on Sunday between India and Pakistan, hours after the nuclear-armed rivals accused each other of violating a truce that brought them back from the brink of an all-out war.
The ceasefire was agreed on Saturday after four days of missile, drone and artillery attacks which killed at least 60 people and sent thousands fleeing, in the worst violence since India and Pakistan's last open conflict in 1999.
The “full and immediate” halt to hostilities was unexpectedly announced by US President Donald Trump on social media, who said that it followed a “long night of talks mediated by the United States”.
Early on Sunday India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that New Delhi had retaliated after Pakistan's “repeated violations” of the truce.
Pakistan said it “remains committed” to the ceasefire and that its forces were handling violations by India with “responsibility and restraint”.
Residents of several villages along the Indian side of the Line of Control, the de facto frontier of divided Kashmir, said heavy Pakistani shelling resumed hours after the ceasefire announcement.
Bairi Ram's four-room house in the village of Kotmaira was reduced to rubble in shelling and three of his buffaloes were killed. “Everything is finished,” he said.
But by later in the day a senior security official in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan administered-Kashmir said there were “intermittent exchanges of fire” but that situation was “quiet since the morning”.
The escalation in violence began last week after a gun massacre of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India blamed the attack on Pakistan, which denied any involvement.
India and Pakistan have fought daily since Wednesday along the rugged and mountainous Line of Control, which is marked by razor wire coils, watchtowers and bunkers that snake across foothills populated by villages, tangled bushes and forests.
They have routinely blamed the other for starting the violence, while insisting they themselves were only retaliating.
Kashmir is split between the two countries and claimed by both in its entirety.
They have fought two of their three wars over the region and their ties have been shaped by conflict, aggressive diplomacy and mutual suspicion, mostly due to their competing claims.
With reporting from agencies …
