SRINAGAR, India, Oct 20, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – At least nine people were killed
Sunday in firing along the de facto India-Pakistan border in Kashmir,
officials said, adding to the spike in deaths in recent days as New Delhi
eased a curfew in the disputed region.
Tensions escalated between the nuclear-armed neighbours after India revoked
Kashmir’s autonomy on August 5 and imposed movement and communications
restrictions to quell unrest.
Officials from the two countries accused each other of firing mortar rounds
and small arms along the so-called Line of Control.
“Two soldiers and a civilian were killed and three others injured in the
unprovoked fire by Pakistan,” Indian Army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia told
AFP of the “unprovoked” fire in the mountainous Tangdhar region of Kupwara
district.
Several homes were damaged in the attack and three civilians were being
treated in a hospital, he added.
Officials in Pakistan-administered Kashmir told AFP six civilians were
killed and eight others wounded in Muzaffarabad and Neelum Valley.
“Mortar shells hit civilian houses and have so far martyred five people in
Muzzafarabad and wounded six others,” said Muzaffarabad deputy commissioner
Badar Munir said.
Munir said the dead included three members of one family.
Neelum Valley official Akhtar Ayub said one civilian was killed and two
injured.
The shelling came after five people were killed in Indian Kashmir on
Wednesday, two days after New Delhi restored mobile phone and text services.
Indian authorities said repeatedly during the lockdown that Kashmir has
been mostly peaceful. Kashmir has been split between India and Pakistan since
1947 and was the spark of two wars and numerous skirmishes.
An armed rebellion against Indian rule has raged in the valley since 1989,
claiming tens of thousands of lives, mostly civilians.