Praise for India and Pakistan as Kashmir ceasefire holds, border opens

TITHWAL, India, Monday (AFP) Residents of this village on the de facto Kashmir border between India and Pakistan praised the South Asian rivals on Monday for sticking to a two-year ceasefire and for continuing quake relief efforts.

The two countries have observed a ceasefire since November 26, 2003, along Kashmir's Line of Control, a move that helped pave the way for the start of peace talks in January 2004. The ceasefire has spared villagers on both sides from random shelling and made it easier to open crossing points for earthquake relief.

Civilians have also begin crossing on foot for the first time in 60 years to check on the safety of relatives on the other side after the October 8 quake, which killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir and 1,300 in Indian Kashmir. "The last two years have been the most peaceful ones in our lives," said 35-year-old shopkeeper Anwar Sidiq.

"We used to live under constant fear of incoming shells from there," he said, pointing to the Pakistan zone. "But it has stopped. We have no words to thank the two countries."Tithwal is now a symbol of the peace effort, with regular meetings between Indian and Pakistani army and civilian officials who stop to photograph each other.

"Decades of enemity is giving way to trust," said Nasima Bibi, now living in a tent alongside the river, who cheered as army officers from two sides shook hands in the middle of the suspension footbridge when civilians crossed last week.

"We have always been praying for India-Pakistan friendship and I think now those prayers are being answered," said Imtiaz Ahmed, a porter who has been taking relief goods from the Indian side to the Pakistani zone.