File Photo. Asif Hassan—AFP
Another two injured as intermittent firing across Line of Control continues
Two civilians were killed and two others wounded after Indian troops fired into Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Wednesday, in the latest cross-border violence between the neighboring nations.
The incident took place in a village in Abbaspur sector on the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Kashmir between Pakistan and India.
“A brother and a sister were killed and two other women were wounded in firing by Indian troops,” said local government official Qaiser Aurangzeb.
The firing came one day after four people were killed in an hours-long gunbattle with militants attacking a paramilitary camp in India-administered Kashmir. All three militants were killed, Indian police told AFP, blaming the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed Islamist group for the attack.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947 but both claim the territory in full. For decades rebel groups have fought Indian soldiers deployed in the territory, demanding independence or a merger of the former Himalayan kingdom with Pakistan.
The rival armies routinely target each other across the heavily militarized Line of Control that divides the territory, and Aurangzeb said that intermittent “unprovoked firing” by Indian troops in the area was continuing.
Another local government official, Tahir Mumtaz, confirmed the firing and casualties.