After days of heavy firefights, calm reported along Indian and Pakistan borders

NEW DELHI AP Indian and Pakistani agents explained Monday there was no firing released overnight along the heavily militarized region between their countries the first time in up-to-date days the two nations were not shooting at each other India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all military actions on land in the air and at the sea Saturday in a U S -brokered ceasefire to stop the escalating hostilities between the two nuclear-armed rivals that threatened regional peace The night remained largely peaceful across Jammu and Kashmir and other areas along the international frontier the Indian army mentioned in a declaration adding that no incidents had been published Senior military authorities from India and Pakistan are scheduled to speak later Monday to assess if ceasefire was holding There were fears it would not hold after they accused each other of violations just hours after it was publicized Local establishment officers in Pakistan-administered Kashmir announced no incidents of cross-border firing along the Line of Control and announced that civilians displaced by modern skirmishes between Pakistani and Indian forces were returning to their homes Pakistan s military spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif mentioned late Sunday that Pakistan remains committed to upholding the ceasefire and will not be the first to violate it He also endorsed that senior military leaders from both nations would speak on by phone on Monday Soon after the ceasefire announcement on Saturday Pakistan reopened all of its airports and restored flight operations India followed up Monday with reopening of all the airports that were shut temporarily across northern and western regions due to the flare up in tensions It s informed that these airports are now available for civil aircraft operations with immediate effect the Airports Authority of India commented in a report The militaries of the two countries have been engaged in one of their bulk serious confrontations in decades since last Wednesday when India struck targets inside Pakistan it declared were affiliated with militants responsible for the massacre of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir The tourists mostly Indian Hindu men were brutally killed in front of their families in the meadow town of Pahalgam last month India accused Pakistan of backing the militants who carried out the massacre a charge Islamabad denied The episode first led to a spat of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures by both the nations sending their bilateral ties to a near historic low The two expelled each other s diplomats shut their airspace land borders and suspended a crucial water treaty After Wednesday s strikes in Pakistan both sides exchanged heavy fires along their de facto boundary in the restive Kashmir region followed by missile and drone strikes into each other s territories mainly targeting military installations and airbases Dozens of civilians were killed on both the sides in heavy shelling the two countries disclosed The Indian military on Sunday for the first time claimed its strikes into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan last week killed more than militants including prominent leaders Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai the director general of India s military operations who will be talking to his Pakistani counterpart on Monday announced 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 Ghai commented at least to Pakistani soldiers were killed in clashes along the Line of Control the de facto demarcation that divides the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan Five Indian soldiers were also killed he reported Pakistan s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Thursday stated his country s armed forces had killed to Indian soldiers along the Line of Control Pakistani military also claimed to have shot down five Indian fighter jets and inflected heavy losses on Indian military installations by targeting locations in India The Associated Press couldn t independently verify the suggests made by India and Pakistan Air Chief Marshal AK Bharti the director general India s air operations stated a news conference on Monday that despite minor damage s incurred all our military bases and air defense systems continue to remain fully operational and ready to undertake any further missions should the need so arise Bharti reiterated that New Delhi s fight was with terrorists and not with Pakistan military or its civilians Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this statement