‘Line through our hearts’: A Kashmir village, 75 years after partition

TEETWAL, India/CHILEHANA, Pakistan (HRNW) – A roaring Himalayan river and one of the world’s most militarised borders separate the Khokhar family in Kashmir, a mountainous region divided between India and Pakistan – arch rivals that gained independence from Britain 75 years ago.

Abdul Rashid Khokhar lives on the Indian side, in the village of Teetwal.

Across the fast-flowing waters of the Neelum River, also known as the Kishanganga, his nephews – Javed Iqbal Khokhar and Muneer Hussain Khokhar – run small stores in the hamlet of Chilehana in Pakistan.

Above them, on both sides, loom tall, green mountains from where the militaries of the nuclear-armed neighbours have intermittently rained mortars, shells and small arm fire on each other through the decades.

Since early 2021, the Line of Control (LOC), a 740-km (460-mile) de facto border that cuts Kashmir into two, has been mostly quiet, following the renewal of a ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan.