PoK visitors call for early Indo-Pak talks

Visitors from Pakistan-administered Kashmir have called for an early resumption of talks between Pakistan and India, and demanded an immediate halt to ceasefire violations along the Line of Control.

Residents expressed their joy at being able to meet their relatives from across the border after years.

Pakistani resident Waseem Bashir said that there was need for a dialogue between the two nations so that peace is maintained.

"Officials from both here and the other side should sit together and properly discuss the matter so that people continue to come and go and there is unity and a feeling of brotherhood in the country. We have come here today and met our relatives and elderly," said Basheer.

Recently, the Indian Army intensified patrolling along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch District after alleged ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops.

Visitors also said that cross border firing should be stopped before the talks resume.

"First, the firing should stop and there should be peace between both the sides and then there can be talks. Until the firing stops, it will not be possible to hold talks. I would like to appeal to the heads of both the states to ensure that first the firing and bombardment should stop and then they should discuss the matter," said PoK resident Tafik Rasheed.

Tension has been running high along one of the world's most militarised borders in Kashmir since August 6, when five Indian soldiers were ambushed and killed while on a patrol.

A truce along the Kashmir border has been hallmark for nearly a decade, even though it has been broken often by tit-for-tat artillery fire and the occasional cross-border ambush by the two neighbours.

Indian officials are concerned that Pakistan wants to infiltrate militants back into Indian Kashmir as the war in Afghanistan comes to an end - a charge dismissed as nonsense by Pakistan's government, which denies backing any militants.

Kashmir, the trigger for two of the three wars between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both countries but ruled by them only in part.