Thousands go home as India, Pakistan agree to end Kashmir firing

May 30, 2018 15:31

Thousands of people from Jammu and Kashmir headed back to their homes near the de facto border with rival Pakistan on Wednesday, after their 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-ruled part of disputed 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, Indian Army and Pakistan's army 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 commanders level, Pakistans military said in a statement.

Bacchan Lal, the headman of Abdullian village in 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 dont want this uncertainty. We want permanent peace as we had 30 years ago.

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