'Very tense, very scary': Calgary couple visiting Kashmir caught in crossfire

Syed Arshid Hussain and his wife travelled to Pakistan-administered Kashmir to visit his 85-year-old mother, who lives there, just about a week before the current escalation began between India and Pakistan.

The Calgary couple is staying in a village about 20 kilometres from the Line of Control — the de facto border between Indian and Pakistani-run Kashmir — where Hussain said he could still hear cross-border firing, despite the ceasefire deal between the two nuclear-armed nations.

"We can hear the firing and it's very tense, very scary," he told the Calgary Eyeopener on Monday. "I don't know when it can escalate again, the way it is going."

Calgary Eyeopener7:56Calgarian in Kashmir

We speak with a Calgary man on a trip to visit his mother in Kashmir who has found himself amid a conflict between India and Pakistan.

The recent escalation between India and Pakistan has left dozens dead and injured on both sides of the border — the majority of them in Kashmir.

While the ceasefire seems largely to be holding across the two countries for now, Hafsa Kanjwal, an associate professor of South Asian history at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, warns the deal does not necessarily equate to peace for the Kashmiri people.

"I am, of course, relieved that a broader regional escalation has been prevented with a ceasefire as such. But in the Kashmir region, there's never really a ceasefire," she said. 

"Kashmir continues to always be at the receiving end of violence."

Kashmir the 'flashpoint' of India-Pakistan conflict

Over the four days of back-and-forth strikes between India and Pakistan, Hussain said he and his family have been bracing themselves as missiles and drones fly across the night sky and explosions are heard not so far away.

Hussain, who is the president of the Kashmir Canada Association of Calgary, has advocated for peace in the region for years.

India and Pakistan's dispute over Kashmir has spanned nearly eight decades, dating back to 1947, when India became independent from the British and the partition began to establish the state of Pakistan.

"Kashmiris were promised a plebiscite or some sort of referendum [to decide their own future] back in the late '40s, and up until now that hasn't happened. And Kashmiris have tried to push that right to self-determination using peaceful means, sometimes using armed means," Kanjwal explained. 

"There is both a sense of fatigue, exhaustion in Kashmir, [and] the feeling that the whole world only pays attention to the region when things become volatile between India and Pakistan."

"The Kashmir issue is the flashpoint between these two nuclear countries," Hussain said. 

"And if that issue is not resolved, I don't see any ceasefire or any negotiation that will bring peace in this part of the world."

The pathway to peace

Riyaz Khawaja, a Calgarian who is originally from Srinagar, a city in the Indian-administered side of Kashmir, visits his parents back home frequently. He said the whole back-and-forth has been a major stress for the entire valley.

"There was a lot of panic everywhere," Khawaja said. "They announced the ceasefire [so] there's a bit of relief on everyone and hope that the ceasefire commitment stays on both sides and the peace will return."

The ceasefire, first announced Saturday by U.S. President Donald Trump on Truth Social, breaks from the usual tradition of international actors staying out — at least publicly — of India and Pakistan's affairs, according to Kanjwal.

In a later post, Trump said, "I will work with you both to see if, after a thousand years, a solution can be arrived at, concerning Kashmir."

While the dispute has not played out over a "thousand years," Kanjwal clarified, the move by Trump to help negotiate a resolution has "inadvertently" internationalized the conflict in a way it hasn't been in the past.

Whatever may come of this development, Kanjwal said the pathway to lasting peace will need India and Pakistan to demilitarize the region and make space for Kashmiris to have a voice at the negotiating table.

Both Khawaja and Hussain, from opposite sides of the Line of Control, said they felt the same way — that the Kashmiri people need to be included.

Coming home to Calgary

Hussain told the Eyeopener his children in Canada are very concerned for him and his wife, calling every half-hour to check on them.

The couple were originally scheduled to return to Canada this week, but now he says he's waiting on his airline to rebook him.

Since the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, both Indian and Pakistani airspace has been shut down for periods of time.

But even when he does get a flight out of the region, coming home to Canada won't be the breath of relief it should be for Hussain. His elderly mother will be left behind.

"It's very stressful because when I see my almost 86-year-old mother, seeing her after three years and now I just like … I don't know how to decide to leave her in a situation like this and then go back to Canada.

"And then when I see my kids [in Canada] worried. So it's very.… It's not easy. Very stressful."