Islamabad: At least two Pakistani civilians were killed and seven injured in cross-border exchange of gunfire by Indian troops overnight, the military said on Monday.
The incident was the latest in a wave of exchanges of fire between Indian and Pakistani troops on the Line of Control (LoC) in divided ad disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
The military said Indian troops indulged in “unprovoked firing and shelling” in three sectors on the working boundary, the term used for border between eastern part of Pakistani province of Punjab and the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.
Pakistan Rangers Punjab “befittingly responded” to the Indian action in the sectors of Harpal, Pukhlia and Charwah, the military’s public relations wing said in a statement.
A minor, named as Haniya, aged one and a half years and a man, Mohammad Latif, of Janglora village “embraced Shahadat [martyrdom] while seven civilians were injured,” the statement said.
Intermittent exchange of firing continued throughout night, the statement said, adding that the injured civilians were evacuated to the military hospital in Sialkot, the main city in the area.
Indian police said the late night heavy exchange of fire occurred in its RS Pura sector, killing an Indian border security guard and a six-year-old boy.
The Border Security Force (BSF) soldier died after he received splinters from a mortar shell fired by Pakistan rangers, Danish Rana, inspector general of police for the area, told journalists.
“The boy and the BSF soldier died during the intense exchange of small arms fire and mortars throughout the night along the border,” Rana said.
Six other civilians were also injured during the exchange, said another Indian police officer speaking on condition of anonymity.
Tensions erupted between the two nuclear armed neighbours after 19 Indian soldiers were killed on September 18 in an attack on an Indian army base at Uri in Indian-administered Kashmir, amid an uprising there by people against Indian rule.
Pakistan denied Indian allegations of its involvement in the attack as an attempt to divert international attention from the “brutal” crackdown on Kashmiri people by the Indian forces.
Subsequently, the Indian military claimed it had carried out “surgical strikes” on alleged militant launch pads in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, a claim denied by the Pakistani military.
Since then, recurrent skirmishes in difference sectors on the LoC in Kashmir have been reported, raising fears of escalation of conflict.
The Kashmir dispute dating back to the subcontinent’s partition in 1947 has caused two of the three wars between Pakistan and India and remains a flashpoint and principal barrier to normalisation of bilateral relations.
Pakistan says the United Nations must act to resolve the festering dispute in accordance with the pending UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir, for the sake of durable peace in the region.
