URI, March 9: Prospects for peace between India and Pakistan are at a half-century high amid a border truce and renewed talks between the nuclear-armed neighbours, the Indian government's representative in disputed Kashmir said.
"Never before in the last 40 to 50 years has the climate for peace been as favourable as it is today," Governor S.K. Sinha told reporters late Monday at a military compound within view of Pakistani troops at Uri in Kashmir.
"Something commendable has taken place on the ground," said Mr Sinha, a former army general, referring to a Nov 26 border ceasefire in Kashmir between Pakistan and India.
He said the infiltration of Muslim guerillas over the Line of Control to take part in the uprising against Indian rule in Kashmir has "reduced." "Hopefully when the summer comes and snow melts this situation may continue," he said.
Uri, 100 kilometres northwest of Srinagar, has largely returned to normal under the truce with the reopening of schools, shops and restaurants. "When I came here in June last year there used to be cross-border exchanges every day," Mr Sinha said.
At the same time, however, Kashmir separatists have threatened to pull out of breakthrough talks with the Indian government unless the human rights situation improved.
Four people were killed in the latest separatist violence in Kashmir, police said. Indian troops shot dead two Islamic militants overnight near the northern town of Handwara. Hours later, suspected guerillas broke into a civilian's home inside Handwara and shot him dead, police asserted.
Another civilian was killed by suspected militants in the southern district of Pulwama, police said. No rebel group immediately claimed responsibility for the killings of the two civilians.
Early Tuesday, suspected guerillas fired a rocket at an interrogation centre in the central town of Anantnag which missed the target and hit a tree, causing no casualties, police said. -AFP
