INDIA AND PAKISTAN RESUME CROSS-BORDER TRAVEL IN KASHMIR

MT NEWS: India and Pakistan are resuming cross-border trade and travel in the Jammu region more than a fortnight after ties were suspended following military tensions in Kashmir.

More than 100 people crossed the Chakan da Bagh point in Poonch district on Monday, an official told the BBC.

Trade between the two sides would resume on Tuesday, he said.

The border crossing was closed after a spate of deadly shootings in the disputed territory.

Chakan da Bagh crossing was opened in 2006 to facilitate trade and travel between the divided Kashmiri families living along the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border between India and Pakistan.

However, a second crossing point in Kashmir Valley, at Uri, did not shut after the clashes earlier this month, the BBC’s Riyaz Masroor reports from Srinagar.

The violence plunged the neighbours into the worst crisis in relations since the Mumbai attacks of 2008, which were blamed on militants based in Pakistan.

The two armies agreed to “de-escalate” tensions along the LoC after a meeting of their chiefs of operations.

Both sides denied provoking the clashes in which two Indian and three Pakistani soldiers were killed.

Claimed by both countries, Kashmir has been a flashpoint for over 60 years and two wars have been fought over it. Exchanges of fire in the disputed area are not uncommon but rarely result in fatalities.