Ceasefire Agreement Of 2003

Ceasefire violations along the LOC had become a routine activity during the Kashmir uprising in the 1990s. After the 2003 ceasefire agreement, they were almost stalled during the 2004-2007 peace process. However, ceasefire violations resumed in 2008, when the peace process derailed. Official statistics from India and Pakistan indicate that 2017 was the worst year since the 2003 ceasefire, when violations surpassed the 2000 mark for the first time. These figures clearly indicate that the 2003 unwritten ceasefire is now over, and India and Pakistan are once again in the pre-2003 situation, when such violations were routine along the LOC. According to Professor Happymon Jacob, it was a miracle that the 2003 ceasefire survived for so long, even though he had not written anything officially between the two countries. He said Pakistan had approached India to negotiate a return to the 2003 situation. This indicates that India`s tactic of putting direct pressure on the Pakistani army is a success. With ceasefire violations along the International Border (IB), the total number of ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir amounted to 881. In December, Pakistan also rejected India, saying India had violated the 2017 ceasefire agreement more than 1,300 times. Is the 2003 ceasefire agreement really dead, given that violations of the ceasefire along the heavily militarized LoC become the norm, not the exception? On Monday, Indian government officials said they welcomed the Pakistani statement. Military chiefs formalized the agreement Tuesday in their weekly appeal.

Pakistan and India agreed to stem cross-border violence in order to respect a ceasefire agreement signed in 2003 between the two nuclear neighbours. A spokesman for India`s Foreign Ministry, Navtej Sarna, announced the ceasefire agreement in New Delhi on Tuesday. A Pakistani military spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, confirmed this, but it is interesting to note that the agreement was never officially signed. “Before 2003, the situation was pretty bad along the LoC and ib. When the agreement was reached in 2003, it was never really put on paper. As far as I know, it was an oral agreement between the two parties. Pakistan is the one who launched the ceasefire by asking for it, and we accepted it,” said Lieutenant-General Hooda. It is interesting to note here that Pakistan seems to be trying to formalize the 2003 ceasefire, when the Indian side seems quite reluctant to discuss it.

Addressing the 70th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2015, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said: “We propose that Pakistan and India formalize and respect the 2003 agreement for a comprehensive ceasefire on the Kashmir line of control.” And he proposed an extension of the UN military observer group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to monitor the ceasefire. In October 2016, Pakistan`s High Commissioner to New Delhi, Abdul Basit, reiterated the same offer and said: “This would help prevent further deterioration of the situation until we are able to resume talks.” New Delhi: Things warmed up on Monday along the line of control after the Indian army killed seven Pakistani soldiers on the line of control in a “retaliation operation” in the Poonch Kashmir district.