Fragile ceasefire holds between India, Pakistan as Trump offers more help

Fragile ceasefire holds between India, Pakistan as Trump offers more help

A fragile ceasefire was holding between India and Pakistan on Sunday, after hours of overnight fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours, as U.S. President Donald Trump said he will work to provide a solution regarding Kashmir.

The arch rivals were locked in intense fighting for four days, the worst in nearly three decades, firing missiles and drones at each other’s military installations, killing almost 70 people in all in the two countries.

A ceasefire agreement was reached after diplomacy and pressure from the United States, but within hours, artillery fire was witnessed in Indian Kashmir, the centre of much of the fighting.

Trump praised leaders of both countries for agreeing to halt the aggression and said he would “substantially” increase trade with them, although this was “not even discussed”.

“I will work with you both to see if … a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

Among those most affected by the fighting were residents in border areas on either side, many who fled their homes when the fighting began on Wednesday, two weeks after a deadly attack in Indian Kashmir’s Pahalgam that India said was backed by Islamabad and which sparked the current round of fighting. Pakistan denied the accusation.

In the Indian border city of Amritsar, home to the Golden Temple revered by Sikhs, a siren sounded on Sunday morning to resume normal activities brought relief from the tension and people were seen out on the roads.

“Ever since the terrorists attacked people in Pahalgam, we have been shutting our shops very early and there was an uncertainty. I am happy that at least there will be no bloodshed on both sides,” Satvir Singh Alhuwalia, 48, a shopkeeper in Amritsar told Reuters.

In some border areas, however, people were asked not to return just yet. In the Indian Kashmir city of Baramulla, residents were told to wait due to the threat posed by unexploded munitions.

“People here are hosting us well but just as a bird feels at peace in its own nest, we also feel comfortable only in our own homes, even if they have been damaged,” said Azam Chaudhry, 55, who fled his home in the Pakistani town of Khuiratta and has now been told to wait until Monday before returning.

In Indian Kashmir’s Uri, a key power plant that was damaged in a Pakistani drone attack is still under repair.

“The project has suffered minor damage … We have stopped generation as the transmission line has been damaged,” said an official from state-run NHPC, India’s biggest hydropower company, who did not want to be identified.

Even with the ceasefire in place, the Indian Air Force said in a mid-day post on X unidentified “operations” were still “ongoing”, while officials in Pakistan said around the same time there was some firing in Pakistani Kashmir’s Bhimber overnight but nowhere else, and there were no casualties.

“More than me, my family is happy (with the ceasefire)…my children and wife have been calling me every hour to check on me,” Guruman Singh, a security guard in Amritsar, said.

Reporting by Aftab Ahmed in Jammu, Saurabh Sharma in Amritsar, Tariq Maqbool in Muzaffarabad, Charlotte Greenfield in Islamabad, Fayaz Bukhari in Srinagar, Additional reporting by Sarita Chaganti Singh in New Delhi; Writing by Tanvi Mehta and Sakshi Dayal; Editing by Lincoln Feast.