Air Marshal AK Bharti, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, Vice Admiral AN Pramod and Major General SS Sharda attend a press briefing at the National Media Centre in New Delhi, India, May 11, 2025. REUTERS/Priyanshu Singh
JAMMU, India/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -India's military operations chief is expected to hold talks on Monday with his Pakistan counterpart about the next steps after a ceasefire, New Delhi has said, as it reopened airports and share markets in the nuclear-armed neighbours edged higher.
There were no reports of explosions or projectiles overnight, after some initial ceasefire violations, with the Indian Army saying Sunday was the first peaceful night in recent days along the border, although some schools remain closed.
Saturday's ceasefire in the Himalayan region, announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, followed four days of intense firing and diplomacy and pressure from Washington.
India's military sent a "hotline" message to Pakistan on Sunday about the previous day's ceasefire violations, flagging New Delhi's intent to respond to further such incidents, a top Indian army officer said.
A spokesman for Pakistan's military denied any violations.
In a statement on Saturday, India's foreign ministry said both sides' director generals of military operations would speak to each other on Monday.
Pakistan did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the talks.
On Monday, India reopened 32 airports it had shut during the clashes, with the Airports Authority of India saying in a statement they were available for civil operations. Pakistan had reopened its airspace on Saturday.
The arch rivals had targeted each other's military installations with missiles and drones, killing dozens of civilians as relations turned sour after India blamed Pakistan for an attack that killed 26 tourists.
Pakistan denies the accusations and has called for a neutral investigation.
India said it launched strikes on nine 'terrorist infrastructure' sites in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir on Wednesday, but Islamabad has said those were civilian sites.
Pakistan's sovereign dollar bonds rallied more than 4 cents on Monday before retracing, with longer-dated issues gaining the most. The 2036 maturity was trading 3.60 cents higher by 0627 GMT, to be bid at 76.16 cents on the dollar.
Late on Friday, the International Monetary Fund approved a fresh $1.4-billion loan to Pakistan under its climate resilience fund and approved the first review of its $7-billion program.
Pakistan's benchmark share index was up 8.5% on Monday, after a brief trading halt earlier in the session. It has recovered most of its losses in the past three sessions after India'sstrikes.
Indian benchmarks jumped about 3%, after the Nifty index lost 1.5% in the prior three sessions. Worries about the conflict also erased $83 billion from equities in the two daysuntilFriday.
While Islamabad has thanked Washington for facilitating the ceasefire and welcomed Trump's offer to mediate in the Kashmir dispute, New Delhi has not commented on U.S. involvement in the truce or talks at a neutral site.
India, which says disputes with Pakistan have to be resolved directly by the neighbours, has in the past rejected the involvement of any third party.
"Kashmir is a bilateral issue, not an international issue," Shilpak Ambule, its high commissioner, or ambassador, in Singapore, told Bloomberg TV. "For us, the word mediation does not work with the Kashmir issue."
The main opposition Congress party, which had backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the April 22 attack, agreed, while calling for a special parliament session on the latest developments with Pakistan.
"The government should also give its stand on the statements made by America on the Kashmir issue, as this is a bilateral issue," Congress leader Sachin Pilot said in a post on X on Sunday.
Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan both rule part of the Himalayan region of Kashmir, but claim it in full.
India blames Pakistan for an insurgency in its part of Kashmir that began in 1989, but Pakistan says it provides only moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiri separatists.
(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed in Jammu, Abhijith Ganapavaram and Shivam Patel in New Delhi, Indranil Sarkar and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru, Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai, Libby George in London; Writing by Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)