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SRINAGAR/MUZAFFARABAD. — The prime ministers of India and Pakistan have offered to help each other in efforts to alleviate flood havoc in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, lowering tension between the rival nations after weeks of army clashes and heated rhetoric.
Kashmir is divided by one of the world’s deadliest and most heavily militarised borders. Both the Indian and Pakistani sides have been ravaged by floods that have killed at least 239 people as rivers burst their banks after heavy rain. The disaster, which left large parts of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, deep in water, comes weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled high-level peace talks and accused Pakistan of fighting a “proxy war”.

The Hindu nationalist leader’s tone was more conciliatory in a letter to his Pakistani counterpart on Sunday.
“It is a matter of great distress that the retreating monsoon rains have played havoc in many parts of our two countries,” Modi wrote to Nawaz Sharif, according to excerpts released by his office. — Reuters.