NEW DELHI, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- India and Pakistan agreed to stop their troops from firing at each other along the 430-mile treacherous and porous border that divides the Kashmir region.
The cease-fire was to be effective at midnight.
Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali Sunday announced a unilateral cease-fire to coincide with Eid celebrations at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Eid will be celebrated in the region on Wednesday or Thursday depending on the sighting of the moon.
India welcomed Pakistan's cease-fire plan and Tuesday matched Jamali's statement by asking its troops to maintain a cease-fire.
"Directors-general of military operations of India and Pakistan, in the course of their weekly conversation today, agreed to observe a cease-fire with effect from midnight tonight along the international border," a statement of India's foreign ministry said Tuesday.
Indian and Pakistani troops clash almost daily along the border. The two rival neighbors have fought three wars since gaining independence from British rule in 1947.
More than a dozen Islamic groups are fighting a 14-year-old battle with Indian troops to seek Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan. More than 36,000 people have been killed in the uprising.
