A night at cashmere, taken between India and the fight of Pakistan

While night fell, we could see hills dotted with shiny white spots – houses nestled in the slopes on the Pakistani side of the cashmere side. The city behind us, on the Indian side, was also shimmering.

My friend hoped. “Lights are a good sign,” he said. “It means that nothing is wrong tonight.”

But while we settled in dinner, an ad has gone from a neighboring mosque: “It is advisable to citizens, especially in border areas, to stay inside.”

As in concert, the lights on both sides of the border have turned off and the darkness covered the valley. The announcement had seemed trivial, but the Kashmiris knew what it meant.

The bombings were going to begin.

I spent a large part of my career to cover the cashmere disorders. At the end of a reporting trip to the control line, I can’t wait to stay with my old friend Irshad Khwaja and his family in Garkote, a village on the Indian administrator side.

The day before, early Wednesday, tensions between India and Pakistan had evolved in a military confrontation which would take place when two confrontations took place in parallel.