SRINAGAR, Nov 30: The heavy guns may have fallen silent on the borders of Kashmir but in the rugged zone of the disputed state being administered by India smaller weapons are blazing away as lethally as ever.
Analysts believe the ceasefire between the rival armies which came into effect at midnight on Tuesday will have little impact on freedom struggle being waged by Kashmiris since 1989 at a cost of thousands of lives.
Police by late Saturday had reported at least a dozen encounters since the start of the ceasefire between Indian troops and Mujahideen, claiming the lives of at least 24 people.
Kashmir’s leading analyst Tahir Mohiudin pointed out that the truce covers only the border shelling and not the daily fighting between Indian troops and Kashmiri Mujahideen.
“There is unlikely to be any immediate impact of the ceasefire on the ground situation in Kashmir as it (the truce) is meant for border areas only,” Mr Mohiudin said.
“The two are two different issues to me,” he said.
“It has definitely brought calm to the volatile borders as two armies are holding fire, but the violence within the state is continuing,” he said.
Prior to the ceasefire, the rival armies skirmished almost daily over the LoC, shelling each other and killing dozens of civilians each year.
Both the Mujahideen and the security forces have said the truce on the borders will not have any bearing on their ground operations.
“It is not like the ceasefire announced by India and Hizbul Mujahedin separately in the year 2000,” said Mohiudin.
In July 2000 the Hizb announced a unilateral ceasefire which was reciprocated when New Delhi called off operations against the group.
The truce was withdrawn by the Hizb leadership after New Delhi refused to engage Islamabad in talks over Kashmir.
In November the same year Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee announced a unilateral ceasefire which lasted for six months and was not reciprocated by the Kashmiri groups.
During the two ceasefires, cross-border exchanges continued. Now it is the other way around.—AFP