By Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam, Shivam Patel, Charlotte Greenfield, Aftab Ahmed
ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire on Saturday after U.S. pressure and four days of fighting, but within hours explosions rang out in border cities and towns and India accused Pakistan of violating the pact.
Artillery fire and attack drones were witnessed in Jammu and Kashmir, the centre of much of the fighting, while blasts from air-defence systems boomed in cities under blackout, similar to the previous evening, according to authorities, residents and Reuters witnesses.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters that Pakistan had violated the understanding arrived at by the two countries earlier in the day, and that the Indian armed forces had been instructed to “deal strongly” with any repetition.
“We call upon Pakistan to take appropriate steps to address these violations and deal with the situation with seriousness and responsibility,” Misri told a media briefing.
In response, the foreign ministry of Pakistan said the country was committed to the ceasefire and blamed India for the violations. “Our forces are handling the situation with responsibility and restraint,” it said.
The ministry also called on troops on the ground to exercise restraint and said that any issues in the implementation of the ceasefire should be addressed through communication at appropriate levels.
Pakistan’s military spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The fighting has been the worst between the old South Asian enemies in nearly three decades and threatened to erupt into a full-scale war in one of the world’s most volatile and densely populated regions.
There were briefly fears that nuclear arsenals might come into play as Pakistan’s military said a top body overseeing its nuclear weapons would meet.
But the defence minister said no such meeting was scheduled, hours after a night of heavy fighting in which the two countries targeted each other’s military bases and the combined civilian death toll rose to 66.
“Pakistan and India have agreed to a ceasefire with immediate effect,” Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar posted on X. “Pakistan has always strived for peace and security in the region, without compromising on its sovereignty and territorial integrity!”
Misri had earlier said the chiefs of the two countries’ military operations had spoken to each other and agreed that all fighting would stop at 5 p.m. Indian time (1130 GMT).
U.S. President Donald Trump posted: “After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE. Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence.”
HOTLINES AND DIPLOMACY
Dar told the broadcaster Geo News that military channels and hotlines between India and Pakistan had been activated, and three dozen countries had helped to facilitate the agreement.
On Wednesday, India had attacked what it said was “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistani Kashmir and Pakistan, two weeks after 26 people were killed in an attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir.
Pakistan denied India’s accusations that it was involved in the attack. Days of cross-border fire, shelling and drone and missile attacks followed.
Despite the truce, two Indian government sources told Reuters that the punitive measures announced by India and reciprocated by Pakistan, such as trade suspension and visa cancellations, would remain in place for now.
The sources also said the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, a critical water-sharing pact that India suspended after the Kashmir attack, would remain suspended.
The Indian foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he and Vice President JD Vance had engaged with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan’s Shehbaz Sharif, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir, and the two national security advisers over the course of 48 hours.
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.
(Reporting by Gibran Peshimam, Charlotte Greenfield and Saeed Shah in Islamabad, Ariba Shahid in Karachi, Asif Shahzad in Muzaffarabad, Shivam Patel in New Delhi, Aftab Ahmed in Jammu, Fayaz Bukhari in Srinagar and Saurabh Sharma in Amritsar, Rishabh Jaiswal and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield, Gibran Peshimam, Krishna N. Das and YP Rajesh; Editing by Mark Potter, Kevin Liffey, Louise Heavens and Matthew Lewis)
