Oboy! Another hudna! "Kick the football, Charlie Mukkerjee. Go ahead. Trust us."
Pakistan on Sunday offered to impose a ceasefire along the military line of control in Kashmir and India promised to reply within one day. Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali said in a televised address that he has ordered troops to observe the ceasefire from the start of Eid al-Fitr, a holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and hoped nuclear rival India would respond positively. "We have ordered our troops deployed along the Line of Control to demonstrate a complete ceasefire from the day of Eid," Jamali said in his speech.
| What? No covering fire for the infiltrators? What will become of them? |
India reacted cautiously, saying that it would respond to Pakistan's offer on Monday. "We will react tomorrow," Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said. Indian officials accuse Pakistani troops of firing along the Line of Control (LoC) to give cover to Islamic guerillas sneaking into Indian Kashmir to join battle there. Islamabad denies it sends fighters across the ceasefire line and says it only gives political, moral and diplomatic support to what it calls the "Kashmiri freedom struggle". Each week several people are killed or wounded on both sides of the Line of Control by exchanges of artillery and mortar fire between soldiers of Pakistan and India.
| Usually it's 122 mm moral support, occasionally 152 mm... |
The idea of a ceasefire along the LoC was first mooted by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in August, who suggested both countries should observe it, though he had not mentioned any start date. New Delhi at the time poured cold water on the proposal, saying it contained nothing new. Jamali said Pakistan was also ready to start a bus service between Muzaffarabad, capital of Islamabad-controlled Kashmir and Srinigar, state capital of New Delhi-controlled Kashmir, a proposal made by India last month.
| So now the infiltrators will just be able to hop the bus. Guess that makes sense... |
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