IndiaPakistan

India-Pakistan tensions running high over Kashmir

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Tensions are still running high between India and Pakistan as the two neighbors have repeatedly accused each other of violating a 10-year-old ceasefire over Kashmir, Press TV reports.

The ongoing conflict is now taking its toll on the people of Kashmir who have suffered heavy losses as a result of the hostility between India and Pakistan.

People in Kashmir believe that the United Nations as well as human rights organizations should resolve the conflict in the Muslim majority region.

“It was since 1989, India has not allowed any human rights organizations to come and monitor situation in Kashmir, so it makes some points. It gives you an idea that there is something wrong within the administration of India in Kashmir,” said a Kashmiri youth.

On August 17, Pakistan accused India of firing on border posts in Kashmir and the neighboring Punjab province, killing a civilian with unprovoked firing.

New Delhi accused the Pakistani army of involvement in a deadly overnight ambush in Kashmir that killed five Indian soldiers in early August.

The neighbors agreed on a ceasefire in 2003 and launched a peace process the following year. Since then, there have been sporadic clashes between the two countries.

Kashmir, which is a mountainous region in the north of both India and Pakistan, has been the bone of contention between the two neighbors for more than six decades.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947 — two of them over Kashmir.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan by the UN-monitored Line of Control, but is claimed in full by both countries.

Thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir over the past two decades.

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