TALKS TO FOLLOW AT NEUTRAL VENUE
In a post on X, Rubio commended Modi and Sharif on the agreement, which he said included not only an immediate ceasefire but also the start of talks on “a broad set of issues at a neutral site.”
News of the ceasefire was greeted with relief on both sides of the border and Pakistan’s airport authority said its airspace had been fully reopened.
But the subsequent violations sparked alarm in India.
“What the hell just happened to the ceasefire? Explosions heard across Srinagar!!!”, Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Indian Kashmir, posted on X. “This is no ceasefire. The air defence units in the middle of Srinagar just opened up.”
India and Pakistan have been locked in a dispute over Kashmir ever since they were born at the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan both rule part of Kashmir but claim it in full.
They have gone to war three times, including twice over Kashmir, alongside numerous smaller outbreaks of fighting.
India blames Pakistan for an insurgency in its part of Kashmir that began in 1989 and has killed tens of thousands. It also blames Pakistani Islamist militant groups for attacks elsewhere in India.
Pakistan rejects both charges. It says it provides only moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiri separatists.
