INDIA: Sometimes the only outsiders that Indian troops posted along the contested frontier in Kashmir see are Pakistani soldiers eyeballing them across the remote valley high in the rugged Himalayan mountains.
Contact between them extends to what Indian soldiers posted to the fortified concrete bunkers call “hooting” — an occasional taunting shout or whistle echoing across the divide, which can be as little as 30 meters (100 feet) at its narrowest point.
That’s close enough to hurl a hand grenade or, perhaps more hopefully for the arch-rivals who share a sporting passion, a well-thrown cricket ball.
“There is obviously no interaction with the enemy,” an Indian officer deployed along the de facto border, dubbed the Line of Control (LoC), told AFP in a visit to positions organized by the army.
Troops on each side are settling back down to an uneasy standoff a month after the deadly April 22 attack on tourists in Kashmir sent relations spiralling toward a war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.
New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the Islamist militants it said were behind the killing of 26 men in the deadliest attack on civilians in Muslim-majority Kashmir in decades.
Pakistan denies the charge.
Troops along the LoC began exchanging nightly gunfire two days after the attack, rattling off shots into the dark without causing casualties.
India then launched strikes deep into Pakistan’s territory on May 7, triggering four days of intense drone, missile, aerial combat and artillery exchanges.
More than 70 people were killed on both sides, the worst conflict since 1999, before a ceasefire
was agreed on May 10.
It is still holding and the LoC is again quiet.
Diplomatically, New Delhi and Islamabad seem back to an uneasy peace, trading long-standing accusations that the other supports militant groups operating in their territory.
Islamabad blamed India on Wednesday for a bomb attack on a school bus that killed six people, which New Delhi called a “baseless” allegation and said it was “second nature for Pakistan to blame India for all its internal issues.”
India expelled a Pakistani diplomat on Wednesday, the second since the ceasefire deal.
Soldiers from either side eye each other warily across the razor’s edge of the LoC that slices through the territory, home to some 17 million people and which each side claims in full.
The Indian officer pointed to a green ridge where he said Indian and Pakistani posts were about 30-40 meters apart.
“There are many such places across the frontline,” he said.
“Our soldiers can see and hear the other side at such posts,” said the officer, who could not be identified because he did not have official clearance to speak to the media.
“There is even hooting at times, but no conversations.”
When the hooting does happen, it is sometimes to taunt the other during rare cricket matches between the rival nations.
For the Indian forces, the Pakistani soldiers can be the only other humans they see outside their unit for weeks when snow cuts them off in the winter months.
The border camp had multiple well-insulated bunkers, artillery pieces covered in camouflage tarpaulins and there were several radar and air defense systems on the hills.
The 770-kilometer (478-mile) LoC — the route of a ceasefire line dating back to 1949 — snakes down from icy high-altitude outposts to greener foothills in the south.
A senior officer in charge of multiple artillery pieces said that, for many of the men, the four days of heavy barrages had been their “first experience” of such conflict.
“It was really intense,” he said, adding that “at least 100 to 150 artillery shells fell around here.”
Outposts dot the picturesque but hard-to-reach terrain of snow-clad peaks, dense forests, icy
streams and ridges.
A small, seemingly tranquil village in Pakistani-run Kashmir surrounded by green hills was visible across the valley.
“We’ve been preparing for years — and were ready,” the artillery officer said, adding that none
of his men were wounded or killed and that they “gave a befitting reply to the enemy.”
Indian army officers at another frontier post pointed to a damaged Pakistani post they’d targeted.
Another officer showed the long rolls of concertina razor wire along their side of the frontier, a formidable barrier to protect their mountain-top outposts.
“Who holds the higher position in the Himalayas is critical in any conflict,” he said.
