Srinagar/Islamabad - Four civilians have been killed and 11
injured in heavy exchanges of fire between Pakistani and Indian
border forces in the disputed Kashmir region, officials said
Saturday.
Multiple ceasefire violations have been reported in the border region
after tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours escalated this
week, stoking fears of a full blown conflict.
A 24-year-old woman and her two young children were killed in the
Poonch district of India-administered Kashmir during overnight
shelling by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC), police
officer Ramesh Kumar Angral said. The father was also critically
injured.
The LoC, a de facto border, divides the disputed Kashmir region into
two parts, one administered by India and the other by Pakistan.
Seven more civilians were injured in the firing in the Uri frontier
area on Friday, reports said.
In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, officials said heavy Indian firing
killed a boy and injured three more in the Kotli district late Friday
night.
The border clashes came hours after Pakistani authorities released an
Indian pilot as a peace gesture to help calm tensions.
The pilot was shot down on Wednesday during a dogfight with Pakistani
aircraft and later captured.
A day earlier, India's air force claimed to have struck an alleged
training militant camp in Pakistan, in retaliation for a suicide
attack that killed 40 paramilitary soldiers in Indian-administered
Kashmir on February 14.
Pakistan and India both lay claim to the Kashmir region and have
fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir.
They agreed to a ceasefire on the border in 2003, but it is often
violated with their border forces accusing each other of targeting
army posts and local people.