An Indian man walking near smoke rising from a residential area that was gutted from alleged fire from the Pakistan side of the border in Jora farm on Wednesday — AFP SRINAGAR, May 23 (AP): Tensions soared on Wednesday along the volatile frontier between India and Pakistan in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, as rival soldiers shelled dozens of villages and border posts for a sixth straight day.
A total of six civilians and a soldier were killed on both sides, officials from the two countries said, in escalating violence in the disputed region that both countries blame the other for initiating.
Indian police said Pakistani soldiers continued targeting dozens of Indian border posts and villages with mortars and automatic gunfire in the Jammu region. At least five civilians were killed and 30 others injured on the Indian side, said a top police officer, S.D. Singh.
In Pakistan, two security officials said Pakistani and Indian troops exchanged fire near Sialkot city in eastern Punjab province. They said the two sides had traded fire over the past 48 hours, killing a civilian and a soldier.
The officials said several people were also wounded, including three border guards. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
As in the past, each country accused the other of initiating the latest border skirmishes and violating a 2003 cease-fire agreement.
Wednesday's fighting follows days of confrontations that left four civilians on each side and two Indian soldiers dead.
The fighting has sent tens of thousands of villagers fleeing from their homes in dozens of affected villages along the border to government buildings converted into temporary shelters or to the houses of friends and relatives living in safer places.
Dozens of schools in villages along the frontier have been closed and authorities advised residents to stay indoors as shells and bullets rained down. Some damage to houses was also reported on the Indian side.
Pakistan says Indian forces have carried out more than 1,050 cease-fire violations this year, resulting in the deaths of 28 civilians and injuries to 117 others.
India says 25 civilians and 18 government troops have been killed this year in over 800 cease-fire violations initiated by Pakistan. They say dozens have been injured and scores of cattle have perished.
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 200-kilometer (125-mile) boundary separating Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab, where the latest fighting occurred.
Meanwhile, a mortar and gunfire battle between Indian and Pakistani forces along part of their Kashmir frontier killed five more civilians Wednesday, police said, taking the death toll in the six-day confrontation to 15.
Since last Friday nearly 40,000 residents have fled the 200 kilometre-long (125 mile) conflict zone, between the Jammu region in India-administered Kashmir and Pakistan's Punjab province.
Indian authorities have closed all schools within five kilometres (three miles) of the border and have lodged panicked residents in camps away from the guns.
The Indian and Pakistan militaries held talks this week but failed to calm one of the deadliest flare-ups this year.
"Four residents were killed and 30 were injured in the Pakistani firing," Indian Kashmir's director-general of police, Shesh Paul Vaid, told AFP, giving the toll from the latest night of shelling.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
