India and Pakistan break Kashmir truce

INDIA and Pakistan have exchanged artillery fire in the disputed Kashmir region, forcing hundreds of people to flee, police in Indian Kashmir said.

The incident has raised fresh doubts about a 15-year ceasefire between the nuclear-armed rivals. It was not clear what triggered the fighting on Saturday in the Uri sector on the so-called Line of Control that divides the mostly Muslim Himalayan region.

Tension has been running high since an attack on an Indian army camp in Kashmir this month in which six soldiers were killed. India blamed Pakistan for the attack and said it would make its rival pay for the “misadventure”. Imtiaz Hussain, a police superintendent, said artillery shells fired by the Pakistan army fell in the Uri area and hundreds of villagers had fled from their homes.

Indian forces returned artillery fire, an Indian officer said, the first time the heavy guns had been used since a 2003 ceasefire along the disputed frontier.