publish time

05/03/2019

author name Arab Times

publish time

05/03/2019

author name Arab Times
A Kashmiri woman comforts a wailing relative after his house was destroyed in a gunbattle in Tral village, south of Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir on March 5. Two suspected rebels were killed in a gunbattle with Indian forces, police said Tuesday. (AP)

India and Pakistan resumed barter trade at a border crossing in Kashmir on Tuesday, an Indian official said, but tension in the contested region continued with a general strike and more fighting between Indian security forces and separatists.

Hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours escalated dramatically late last month, after an Indian air strike on what it said was a militant group that carried out a suicide attack in the Pulwama district of Indian-controlled Kashmir on Feb 14.

Both sides, which claim Kashmir in full but rule in part, said they downed enemy jets for the first time in decades, and firing along the border became a common sight, disrupting trade and travel. Trade across the border, known as the Line of Control (LoC), was part-suspended after repeated mortar and small arms fire at Uri, a border town where the exchange of goods takes place. (RTRS)