ISLAMABAD: India and Pakistan have delayed until Monday evening talks between their military operations chiefs to discuss the next steps after a ceasefire, the Indian army said, as New Delhi reopened airports and shares rose in the nuclear-armed rivals.

A fragile 48-hour-old truce appeared to be holding on Monday after both sides blamed the other for initial violations on Saturday night, hours after the US-brokered deal was first announced. There were no reports of explosions or projectiles overnight, after some initial ceasefire violations, with the Indian Army saying Sunday was the first peaceful night in recent days along their de facto Line of Control border.

Saturday’s ceasefire followed four days of intense fighting with drones and missiles and gun fire exchanges across the Line of Control that divides the disputed Kashmir valley into parts administered by India and Pakistan. Dozens were reported killed. 

The Indian army said on Monday both sides’ director generals of military operations would speak by telephone in the evening, a delay from an initial timing of noon (0630 GMT), but gave no reason.

“In spite of some minor damage, all our military bases and systems continue to remain fully operational,” India’s director general of air operations, Air Marshal A.K. Bharti, told a media briefing.

A day earlier, Lt. Gen. Rajiv Ghai, the director general of military operations, said India’s armed forces struck nine militant infrastructure and training facilities, including sites of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group that India blames for carrying out major militant strikes in India and the disputed region of Kashmir.

At a televised news conference on Sunday, Pakistan military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said Pakistan’s armed forces targeted a total of 26 Indian military installations in response to India’s missile strikes which were launched before dawn Wednesday.

He said the military had vowed it would respond to the Indian aggression, and it has fulfilled its commitment to the nation. Sharif warned that any threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty or territorial integrity would be met with a “comprehensive, retributive, and decisive” response.

He said Pakistan exercised “maximum restraint” during the counterstrike, employing medium-range missiles and other munitions, and that no civilian areas were targeted inside India.

MARKETS INCH UP

Pakistan halted trading on Monday for an hour after its benchmark share index rose nearly 9 percent, having recovered most of its losses in the past three sessions after India’s first strikes last Wednesday. 

Late on Friday, the International Monetary Fund approved a fresh $1.4-billion loan to Pakistan under its climate resilience fund and approved the first review of its $7 billion program.

Pakistan’s benchmark share index closed up 9.4 percent on Monday, while India’s blue-chip Nifty 50 index closed 3.8 percent higher in its best session since February 2021.

Before the ceasefire took hold on Saturday, the arch rivals had targeted each other’s military installations with missiles and drones, as relations turned sour after India blamed Pakistan for a militant attack that killed 26 tourists on Apr. 22. Pakistan denies the accusations and has called for a neutral investigation.

Saturday’s truce was first announced by US President Donald Trump. US officials also said the two nations had agreed to hold talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site though no date has been announced yet. 

Kashmir has been a bone of contention between the two countries since independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Both countries claim the Muslim-majority region in full but govern only parts of it. They have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over the disputed territory. 

Islamabad has thanked Washington for facilitating Saturday’s ceasefire and welcomed Trump’s offer to mediate on the Kashmir dispute with India but New Delhi has not commented on US involvement in the truce or talks at a neutral site.

- With inputs from Reuters

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday welcomed the decision by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) group, which has been locked in bloody conflict with the Turkish state for more than four decades, to disband and end its armed struggle.

Since the PKK launched its insurgency in 1984, the conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, exerted a huge economic burden and fueled social tensions. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkiye and its Western allies.

Taking to X, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called the PKK’s dissolution a “historic development.”

“Pakistan welcomes the announcement of PKK’s dissolution, a significant step toward lasting peace and a terror-free Turkiye,” he wrote.

The Firat news agency, which is close to the group, reported on Monday that the PKK 12th Congress decided to “dissolve the PKK’s organizational structure and end the armed struggle.”

The PKK held the congress in response to a February call to disband from its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island south of Istanbul since 1999. It said on Monday that he would manage the process.

On Mar. 1, the PKK announced a unilateral ceasefire, but attached conditions, including the creation of a legal framework for peace negotiations.

“The PKK has completed its historic mission,” the PKK statement said. “The PKK struggle has broken the policy of denial and annihilation of our people and brought the Kurdish issue to a point of solving it through democratic politics.”

The PKK’s decision will give President Tayyip Erdogan the opportunity to boost development in Turkiye’s mainly Kurdish southeast, where the insurgency has impaired the regional economy for decades.

A deputy leader of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, the third largest in Turkiye’s parliament and which played a key role in facilitating Ocalan’s peace call, told Reuters the PKK decision was significant not just for Kurdish people but for the Middle East as a whole.

“It will also necessitate a major shift in the official state mentality of Turkiye,” DEM’s Tayip Temel said.

- With inputs from Reuters