Islamabad: Pakistan on Friday accused India of killing three civilians and wounding several others in cross-border fire, as tensions soar in Kashmir.
The incident occurred in Nakyal sector, near the frontier dividing Indian-administered Kashmir from Pakistan’s Punjab province, Pakistani officials said.
“At least three people including a woman and a girl were killed and five others injured when Indian troops opened fire across the border near Nakyal sector on the Line of Control, the de facto border between India and Pakistan,” district administration official Adnan Khursheed said.
Zeeshan Nisar, an administration official in Nakyal confirmed the incident, adding that a seven-year-old girl was among the dead.
A doctor at the hospital in Nakiyal sector put the number of injured slightly higher at seven.
“Three of the injured are in critical condition while four injured are stable,” Mohammad Nasrullah said.
A local resident of the area said mortar shells had hit a house where a wedding ceremony was taking place.
“A wedding ceremony was going on in a house when mortar shells hit them,” Mohammad Naseer said.
Sazia Bibi, one of the injured, said she was outside the house to fetch water when pieces of mortor shell hit her.
The latest violence comes after New Delhi announced on Thursday it was expelling a Pakistani visa official for suspected spying, with Islamabad responding by saying it would send back an Indian diplomat in an apparent tit-for-tat move.
Relations between the two countries have plummeted in recent months, with India blaming Pakistani militants for a September raid on an army base in its part of disputed Kashmir that killed 19 soldiers.
India said it responded by carrying out strikes across the heavily-militarised border, although Islamabad denies these took place.
