Pakistan decries fatal Kashmir shelling

Islamabad blames Delhi for bombardment of a school van in border area that claims the life of driver and injures eight children

MUZAFFARABAD, PAKISTAN // Pakistan yesterday accused India of shelling a school van in the disputed Kashmir region, killing the driver and injuring eight schoolchildren.

The incident occurred at Mohra village in the Nakyal sector of Pa- kistani-administered Kashmir.

“A shell fired by Indian troops hit a school van at the line of control in Nakyal sector. The van driver has been martyred and eight children wounded,” said Zeeshan Haider, a senior government official. There was no reaction from New Delhi.

Nakyal lies on the line of control, the de facto border between India and Pakistan in the disputed Himalayan state.

Mr Haider said the driver of the van, carrying pupils from a private school, was killed while the children, aged between 10 and 15 years, were taken to hospital amid heavy artillery bombardment. Mohammed Nasrullah Khan, a doctor in Nakyal hospital, said the children suffered shrapnel wounds but their injuries were not life-threatening.

Sardar Iftekhar, a police officer in Nakyal, confirmed the incident and casualties and said five girls and three boys were wounded.

Months of tension between India and Pakistan have erupted into shelling and gunfire across the disputed Kashmir frontier, claiming the lives of dozens of people, including civilians.

Nine people were killed and seven wounded in late November in cross-border fire that hit a passenger bus in the village of Nagdar in Pakistani- administered Kashmir.

Tensions in the long-disputed Himalayan region reached dangerous levels in September, after India blamed Pakistani militants for a raid on an army base that killed 19 soldiers.

India said it had responded by carrying out “surgical strikes” across the heavily militarised border, sparking a furious reac- tion from Islamabad, which denied the strikes took place.

There have since been repeated outbreaks of cross-border firing, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both countries insist that they own the whole of Kashmir and have fought two wars over the mountainous region.