KARACHI: Soldiers arrived on April 30 shortly after the young couple arrived at Al-Sayyed Shabistan, a charming guesthouse in Taobat, and urged them to depart, warning that war could break out at any time.
“Tourist season just began, but for two weeks the village feels like a ghost town—everyone’s hit: shopkeepers, eateries, drivers,” Yahya Shah, owner of a guest house and the head of Taobat’s hotel association, told IPS over the phone.
Only 2 km from the tense Line of Control, which separates Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) from Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and is a de facto border controlled by the military on both sides but is not a legally recognized international border.
