Loading ...Tens of thousands of villagers fled their homes in Kashmir on Monday, as Indian and Pakistani troops bombarded each other with gunfire and mortar shells over the border separating their portions of the disputed region. At least nine civilians were killed.
Indian officials said the flare-up left five villagers, including one child, dead and 35 injured on the Indian side of the border. The Pakistani army reported four civilians killed on its side, including two children, and three injured.
Monday’s violence — one of the worst violations of a 2003 cease-fire between India and Pakistan — followed several meetings between the commanders of the two countries’ border forces aimed at calming tensions. Two of the three wars between the nations have been fought over their competing claims to Kashmir, though the 2003 cease-fire has largely held despite small but regular skirmishes.
Each side accused the other of firing first before dawn, and each said its troops had only retaliated. Both sides said the violence was happening at several points along the border, including the designated frontier dividing Pakistan from the Indian-held Kashmir region of Jammu, as well as the U.N.-monitored line of control that slices through the mountainous region and divides it into an Indian-controlled portion and a Pakistan-administered territory.