Four killed, 11 injured as India and Pakistan trade fire on Kashmir border

Published Mar 2, 2019

Share

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.

dpa

Related Topics: