Wedding bells ringing along Kashmir borders amid truce

BARAMULLA — With Indo-Pak armies maintaining ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC), at least 250 marriages have taken place in border villages of Kashmir, bringing back the old memories of weddings in their own houses instead of moving the events to safer places outside the villages.

Tentative figures available with the news agency KNO said that at least 250 marriage ceremonies have taken place this year so far in Keran, Machil, Bangus, Tangdhar, Gurez, and Uri area along the LoC in north Kashmir.

Locals said that they are happy to witness such celebrations after a very long time. “Earlier, we used to stay indoors for days together due to intense shelling from across the border but now people are participating in marriages on a large scale without anyone fear,” Iqra Khan, a newly-wed girl from Gurez, said.

Similarly at Uri, Nowreen, another recently married girl, said that the ceasefire violation had become routine earlier, making the lives of the people along the border miserable but for the last two years, marriages are taking place here with great enthusiasm while people are living a life of peace and order.

“About five weddings have taken place in our settlement recently and a large gathering of people attended these weddings which were never seen before,” Mushtaq Ahmad, a local from Karnah, said. He said that the memory of those who lost their lives during the shelling in the past will always remain and haunt us.

“Earlier, I had seen many times that some weddings turned into mourning when there was shelling on the borders here,” said Nuzhat Khan, another girl from the Machil area.

On February 2021, India and Pakistan announced that they have agreed to strictly observe all agreements on the ceasefire along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and other sectors.