SRINAGAR: Pakistan and India have exchanged artillery fire in the disputed Kashmir region forcing hundreds of people to flee, police in Indian Kashmir said, raising fresh doubts about a 15-year-old ceasefire between the nuclear-armed rivals in the area.
It was not clear what triggered the latest fighting on Saturday in the Uri sector on the so-called Line of Control (LoC) that divides the mostly Muslim Himalayan region.
But tension has been running high since an attack on an Indian army camp in Kashmir this month in which six soldiers were killed.
India blamed Pakistan for the attack and said it would make its rival pay for the “misadventure”.
Police superintendent Imtiaz Hussain said artillery shells fired by the Pakistan army fell in the Uri area and hundreds of villagers had fled from their homes.
Indian forces returned artillery fire, an Indian officer said, the first time the heavy guns had been used since a 2003 ceasefire along the disputed frontier.
The two armies have been exchanging intermittent small-arms and mortar fire over the past couple of years as ties deteriorated.
Hussain said Pakistani authorities made announcements from a mosque advising villagers living close to the LoC on the Indian side to flee, saying the situation was bad.
About 700 people were sheltering at school in Uri, he said.
Pakistan and India have twice gone to war over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947. The neighbours both claim the region in full but rule it in part.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry condemned the firing and said in a statement 17 Pakistani civilians had been killed by Indian fire along the LoC this year.
India accuses Pakistan of orchestrating a separatist revolt in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Pakistan denies giving material support to the fighters and calls for talks to resolve what it regards as the core disagreement between it and India.
And the story continues. This obsession with Kashmir that we see in Pakistan has caused untold misery to people of pakistan. Pakistan is fighting with the rival who is 10 times bigger and stronger than Pakistan. No where in the world you see such absurdity. Pakistan cannot win this war. And this is known within establishment. But for tension with India many elites in the establishment will lose their significance. In fact very foundation of tottering pakistan is anti India and anti Hindu Jihad. They will continue with such Jihad even if the economy, healthcare, education and future of young Pakistanis go down the drain. In next 7 years India will be 5 Trillion Economy. How on Earth Pakistan is going to wrest Kashmir from India? I do not understand. Pak army cannot do that and other powerful nations including China will not be able to help convince or force India to give up Kashmir to Pakistan. Even tiny North Korea cannot be tamed by the world’s only super power. Who will force India to just give up large part of India to Pakistan? Ordinary people in Pakistan must start introspecting on these questions before it is too late.
[…] Villagers flee Kashmir front line as Pakistan, India trade artillery fire Pakistan Today […]
India wants to divert our attention from western border that’s why it keeps violating ceasefire violations. It knows it very well that the day we fence our western border we will become secure and stable
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It is India that started this fighting. Pakistan army is just protecting Pakistan’s sovereignty.
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