SRINAGAR: Fighting between India and Pakistan paused on Friday after days of heavy shelling across their disputed border, the worst skirmishes between the two countries in more than a decade.

Relative calm returned to the region after a heated exchange of rhetoric, with New Delhi warning Pakistan it would pay an “unaffordable price” if shelling continued. Islamabad had said it was capable of responding “fittingly”.

“It was calm along the Jammu border during the night, there was no firing in any of the sectors,” said Uttam Chand, an Indian police officer, referring to the southern, predominantly Hindu part of the disputed region.

In a symbolic twist in the tale, this year’s Nobel peace prize was awarded jointly to Pakistani and Indian human rights campaigners Malala Yousufzai and Kailash Satyarthi.

Almost 20,000 civilians have fled their homes in the lowlands around India-held Jammu region to escape the fighting, taking refuge in schools and relief camps, according to sources.

Civilians living in the area hit hardest by the shelling expressed relief at the halt in firing.

“We hope calm prevails and the border shooting ends,” said Avtar Singh, 45, after taking refuge in a nearby school.

“Our condition in this school is very bad. We want to go back to our homes.”

Officials have set up 26 camps to house the villagers, with about 14,500 people spending the night there.

“Most villagers are worried about their ripe crops of paddy and maize,” said government officer Thakur Sher Singh. “They cannot be allowed to harvest it now because we cannot endanger their lives and if the tension continues the standing crop could start rotting.”

Exchanges of sporadic fire are common along the de facto border dividing the region, despite a ceasefire pact signed in 2003. But the extent and intensity of the latest violence and the number of civilian deaths is unusual.

Published in Dawn, October 11th , 2014