Pakistan-India border gunbattle leaves 9 dead

SRINAGAR: Indian and Pakistani forces exchanged fire across the tense, heavily-militarised Kashmir border yesterday, leaving eight civilians and an Indian soldier dead, officials said.

The heavy weapons fire along a rare stretch of frontier that India and Pakistan do not argue over also left 22 people wounded.

It came a day ahead of a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kashmir.

The two sides started shooting at each other on Wednesday in the RS Pura sector of Indian Kashmir, opposite Sialkot in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Indian authorities rushed armoured vehicles to evacuate residents yesterday morning as heavy artillery and small arms fire came across the border, officials said.

“Four border residents and a Border Security Force soldier were killed in the Pakistani firing,” the Indian-administered region’s director general of police Shesh Paul Vaid said.

Twelve people were injured on the Indian side.

Pakistan’s military said four civilians, including three children, were killed in Sialkot sector by “unprovoked” firing by Indian troops.

Another 10 were wounded. “The Indian high commissioner (ambassador) was summoned to the Pakistani foreign ministry yesterday to condemn the unprovoked ceasefire violations,” Pakistan’s foreign office said.

An Indian solider was killed on Wednesday in an exchange of fire that its border guards blamed on Pakistani Rangers.

Officially, there has been a ceasefire on the Kashmir border since 2003.

The flare-up came after India suspended military operations against Kashmir rebels for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that began on Thursday.

Militants have rejected the truce offer.

Security has been cranked up across the restive region ahead of Modi’s two-day visit beginning today.

The prime minister is to inaugurate a hydropower station and open road projects near the disputed border.