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A day after the Border Security Force and the Pakistan Rangers assured each other that “peace and tranquility” would be maintained along the International border in J&K, the exchange of
firing has intensified along the border in Uri. This is after a long time that the Line of Control in North Kashmir has become a scene of cross-border shelling forcing relocation of the
people to safer places. Five residential houses were damaged on Saturday morning in heavy exchange of artillery between the two sides at Silkote and Churanda. What is more, in an unusual
development, Pakistan Army used public address system to urge Uri residents to vacate their homes. And on a day when it was raining in the Valley, these residents had to leave their homes,
as the government struggled to accommodate them. Over the past some years as the 2003 agreement has all but unraveled, it had held along the LoC in the Valley. The skirmish in Uri not
only underlines the end of restraint in Kashmir but also the expansion of the arc of the conflict between the two countries. Both countries accuse each other of violating the ceasefire. And
both have suffered loss of the lives of the soldiers and civilians. If anything it means that the understanding achieved at the Friday’s flag meeting between the BSF and the Rangers –
second in past month – hasn’t extended to Kashmir Valley. The situation looks set to continue this way.The calm borders had become an important factor in the normalization of the relations
between the two countries, enabling New Delhi and Islamabad to start one of the most promising dialogue processes through 2003-2007 which by accounts of the senior leaders of the two
countries was close to a breakthrough on Kashmir. There is a need to prevent the return to the hostilities of nineties and which if it happens will mar the prospects of peace in the region
for many more years to come. This calls for the two countries to get their act together and arrest further slide in their relations. And the first thing to do so is to calm the borders.