9 dead as India, Pakistan trade fire along border
SRINAGAR, India — Eight civilians, including an Indian husband and wife and four members of a Pakistani family, were killed when Indian and Pakistani soldiers fired at border posts and villages along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir, officials said Friday. An Indian soldier was also killed in the fighting.
The cross- border firing and shelling began overnight and spread to dozens of posts in the Jammu region of the Himalayan territory, said Indian police officer S. D. Singh.
Indian paramilitary officials said their soldiers responded to Pakistani gunfire and shelling, describing it as “unprovoked and indiscriminate.” The officials said the paramilitary soldier was killed by a Pakistani sniper Thursday night, leading to cross- border firing and shelling at several forward posts.
The husband and wife were killed when a shell fired from the Pakistani side hit their home, Indian police said. Two other civilians were also killed on the Indian side. At least 12 civilians were also wounded and were being treated in hospitals.
A Pakistani woman, Kulsoom Hussain, and her three children were killed when a mortar fired by Indian troops from across the frontier struck their home, local police official Mohammad Amin said.
In a statement, Pakistan army accused Indian troops of initiating an “unprovoked” violation of the 2003 cease- fire accord between the two countries along the frontier near Kashmir and targeting the civilian population, including four villagers who died Friday morning.
As in the past, each country accused the other of initiating the border skirmishes and violating the cease- fire agreement.
This year, soldiers from the two nations have engaged in fierce border skirmishes along the rugged and mountainous Line of Control, as well as a lower- altitude 125- mile boundary separating Indian- controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab, where Friday’s fighting occurred.
India and Pakistan have a long history of bitter relations over Kashmir, which both claim. They have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over their competing claims to the region.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training anti- India rebels and also helping them by providing gunfire as cover for incursions into the Indian side.
Pakistan denies this, saying it offers only moral and diplomatic support to the militants and to Kashmiris who oppose Indian rule.
Rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.