Cross-border Kashmir shelling kills 4 civilians

ISLAMABAD/SRINAGAR, India-controlled Kashmir－Tensions between India and Pakistan flared again in the disputed Kashmir region on Sunday as troops of the two neighbors barraged each other with heavy artillery fire, killing at least four civilians across both sides.

Each side accused the other of starting the shelling and targeting civilian areas in violation of a 2003 cease-fire accord along the so-called Line of Control, or LoC, that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

India and Pakistan have a long history of bitter relations over Kashmir, with both claiming it in its entirety. They have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over their competing claims to the Himalayan region.

Major-General Babar Iftikhar, director general of Pakistani army's media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations, said on Monday that due to "indiscriminate Indian fire of heavy weapons and mortars", a two-year-old child was killed while four others including a woman and a 72-year-old citizen sustained serious injuries.

"Pakistan army troops effectively responded and targeted those Indian posts which initiated fire," he said, adding that the injured have been evacuated to a nearby health facility for necessary medical care.

Shri Ram Ambarkar, an Indian police officer, said three civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed when shells fired from the Pakistani army hit homes at two locations along the LoC in the Kupwara area of the India-controlled part on Sunday evening.

Ambarkar said some people were also feared injured as authorities launched a rescue operation amid heavy cross-border shelling.

Since Friday, Pakistan's military has charged India with repeated violations of the cease-fire along the frontier.

A Pakistani army statement said heavy artillery fire by India "deliberately targeted civilians" on the Pakistani side of the LoC.

Artillery guns

Meanwhile, before Sunday's shelling, some local residents in a frontier village in the India-controlled side of Kashmir protested against the Indian army's positioning of artillery guns near their hamlet.

Police Officer Ambarkar said the issue was an outcome of a "misunderstanding" and was sorted out.

Last weekend, five members of the Indian special forces and five rebels were killed in fierce fighting in the area along the frontier.

The latest fighting has seen for the first time this year the use of heavy artillery targeting civilian areas.

Rebel groups in India-held Kashmir demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. 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 claim.

Rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the violence so far.

Xinhua - Agencies