Last month, the two nuclear armed neighbors India and Pakistan agreed on a ceasefire along the 740 km-long Line of Control (LoC) from midnight of Feb. 24-25. With nearly 1.12 million security personnel deployed on either side, the LoC bifurcates the contested region of Jammu and Kashmir between the two countries.
An earlier announcement on Nov. 26, 2003, led to several confidence building measures between the two largest South Asian countries. That included an agreement to allow regulated civilian traffic along the LoC and the preparation of a roadmap to resolve the Kashmir issue. The 2003 initiative slowed down on account of strong political opposition within both countries. The final nail in the coffin was the terrorist attack on India’s financial capital Mumbai on Nov. 26, 2008, by men from Pakistan.
The Feb. 25 announcement between India and Pakistan is significant. What adds greater salience is the present context in which the new ceasefire was announced. That context ensures a conducive political environment that could help the leaders of both countries to further pursue a peace agenda.
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