The PKK Kurdish militant group will disband and disarm as part of a
peace initiative with Turkey
[May 12, 2025]
By RAJESH ROY
NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian and Pakistani authorities said Monday there was
no firing reported overnight along the heavily militarized region
between their countries, the first time in recent days the two nations
were not shooting at each other.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all military actions
on land, in the air and at the sea Saturday in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire
to stop the escalating hostilities between the two nuclear-armed rivals
that threatened regional peace.
“The night remained largely peaceful across Jammu and Kashmir, and other
areas along the international border,” the Indian army said in a
statement, adding that no incidents had been reported.
Senior military officials from India and Pakistan are scheduled to speak
later Monday to assess if ceasefire was holding. There were fears it
would not hold after they accused each other of violations just hours
after it was announced.
Local government officials in Pakistan-administered Kashmir reported no
incidents of cross-border firing along the Line of Control and said that
civilians displaced by recent skirmishes between Pakistani and Indian
forces were returning to their homes.
Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif, said late
Sunday that Pakistan remains committed to upholding the ceasefire and
will not be the first to violate it.
He also confirmed that senior military officials from both nations would
speak on by phone on Monday.
Soon after the ceasefire announcement on Saturday, Pakistan reopened all
of its airports and restored flight operations. India followed up Monday
with reopening of all the 32 airports that were shut temporarily across
northern and western regions due to the flare up in tensions.
“It's informed that these airports are now available for civil aircraft
operations with immediate effect,” the Airports Authority of India said
in a statement.
The militaries of the two countries have been engaged in one of their
most serious confrontations in decades since last Wednesday, when India
struck targets inside Pakistan it said were affiliated with militants
responsible for the massacre of 26 tourists in Indian-controlled
Kashmir. The tourists, mostly Indian Hindu men, were brutally killed in
front of their families in the meadow town of Pahalgam last month.
India accused Pakistan of backing the militants who carried out the
massacre, a charge Islamabad denied. The incident first led to a spat of
tit-for-tat diplomatic measures by both the nations, sending their
bilateral ties to a near historic low.
The two expelled each other’s diplomats, shut their airspace, land
borders, and suspended a crucial water treaty.
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A villager cleans the roof of his house damaged by Pakistani
artillery shelling at RS Pura, along the International Border,
India, Monday, May 12, 2025, after the two countries reported no
incidents of firing overnight. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
After Wednesday's strikes in Pakistan, both sides exchanged heavy
fires along their de facto border in the restive Kashmir region
followed by missile and drone strikes into each other’s territories,
mainly targeting military installations and airbases. Dozens of
civilians were killed on both the sides in heavy shelling, the two
countries said.
The Indian military on Sunday for the first time claimed its strikes
into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan last week killed more
than 100 militants, including prominent leaders.
Lt. Gen. Rajiv Ghai, the director general of India’s military
operations, who will be talking to his Pakistani counterpart on
Monday, said India’s armed forces struck nine militant
infrastructure and training facilities, including sites of the
Lashkar-e-Taiba group that India blames for carrying out major
militant strikes in India and the disputed region of Kashmir.
Ghai said at least 35 to 40 Pakistani soldiers were killed in
clashes along the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides
the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan. Five Indian
soldiers were also killed, he said.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Thursday said his
country’s armed forces had killed 40 to 50 Indian soldiers along the
Line of Control. Pakistani military also claimed to have shot down
five Indian fighter jets and inflected heavy losses on Indian
military installations by targeting 26 locations in India.
The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the claims made
by India and Pakistan.
Air Chief Marshal AK Bharti, the director general India’s air
operations told a news conference on Monday that despite “minor
damage (s) incurred, all our military bases and air defense systems
continue to remain fully operational, and ready to undertake any
further missions, should the need so arise.”
Bharti reiterated that New Delhi’s fight was “with terrorists, and
not with Pakistan military or its civilians.”
Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this
report.
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