‘Who suffered the most?’: Fear and fatigue in Kashmir after ceasefire

Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir — On Saturday morning at Fateh Kadal, a densely packed neighbourhood on the sloping embankment of the Jhelum River in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir’s largest city, 62-year-old Hajira wrapped a cotton scarf with a brown paisley design around her shoulders.

With her face muscles tense and sweat beading across her upper lip, she sat on the cement floor of a government-run grains store.

“Can you make it quick?” she called to the person manning the store.

Hajira comes to the store every month to submit her biometric details, as required by the government to secure the release of her monthly quota of subsidised grains, which her family of four depends on.

But this time was different. The past few days have been unprecedented for residents of Indian-administered Kashmir. Drones hovered overhead, airports were shut down, explosions rang out, people were killed in cross-border fire, and the region prepared for the possibility of an all-out war.

“He made me stand in the queue,” she said, flinching from knee pain, referring to the store operator. “But there’s uncertainty around. I just want my share of rice so I can quickly return. A war is coming.”

Then, on Saturday evening, Hajira breathed a sigh of relief. United States President Donald Trump announced that he had succeeded in mediating a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.

“I thank God for this,” Hajira said, smiling sheepishly. “Perhaps he understood that I didn’t have the means to endure the financial hardship that a war-like situation would have caused.”

On Sunday morning, Trump went a step further, saying in a post on his Truth Social platform that he would try to work with India and Pakistan to resolve their longstanding dispute over Kashmir, a region both countries partly control but claim in its entirety.