World | Pakistan
Incidents could hit peace process
A series of violations of a five-year-old ceasefire on the de facto border dividing the disputed Kashmir region will add to the chill forming over a peace process between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, analysts say.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:02 July 31, 2008
Islamabad: A series of violations of a five-year-old ceasefire on the de facto border dividing the disputed Kashmir region will add to the chill forming over a peace process between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, analysts say.
There have been three exchanges of fire across the de facto border this month alone. Firing occurred for a third consecutive day yesterday, marking the most serious violation yet of a ceasefire that began in 2003, months before peace talks began.
One Indian soldier was killed while Pakistan hasn't confirmed any casualties. As usual, both sides have blamed the other.
Senior Indian and Pakistani army officials on Tuesday met near LoC to "ease the tension", Indian army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel A.K. Mathur added.
"If these violations lapse into the previous pattern... I am afraid the peace process will be adversely affected," said Talat Masood, a former Pakistani army general turned security analyst. Last week India described the peace process as "under stress" after the two sides held their latest round of talks in New Delhi.
The talks had gone ahead in the shadow of a suicide car bomb attack outside the Indian embassy in Kabul, and spate of incidents on the ceasefire line that acts as a de facto border dividing the disputed Kashmir region.
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