Srinagar / Muzzaffarabad: Indian and Pakistani forces on Friday traded fire on the Kashmir frontier, leaving casualties on both sides and many wounded, officials from both sides said.
Five clashes - involving shelling and gunfire - were reported along the 740-kilometre long unofficial border that has separated the countries for the past seven decades.
The new peak in tensions came only five days after three Indian troops and three militants were killed in an exchange along the Line of Control (LoC).
After Friday’s battle, India’s military accused Pakistan of an “unprovoked” violation of a two-decades-old ceasefire that is habitually breached several times a week.
“Pakistan used mortars and other weapons” and “deliberately targeted civilian areas”, said an Indian army statement.
Three Indian soldiers were killed and three wounded in the Keran sector of the frontier. Kashmir police said three civilians were killed and at least three suffered serious injuries, with one man losing both legs.
Inhabitants of several villages were moved away because of the fighting.
Indian troops “retaliated strongly causing substantial damage to the Pakistan army’s infrastructure and casualties,” added the military statement.
In a statement, Pakistani military and government officials blamed India for initiating the fighting by firing rockets and mortar shells that killed five Pakistani civilians and wounded 27 others overnight and Friday.
The statement called it the latest unprovoked incident of cease-fire violations by India and said Pakistani troops responded by targeting the Indian posts.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry in a statement again summoned an Indian diplomat Friday and lodged a protest alleging Indian cease-fire violations, saying they have killed at least 21 people since January.
The two sides regularly stage artillery duels across the LoC, and invariably blame each other for the clashes.
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