Sajjad Hussain—AFP
Decision taken after Indian security forces opened fire across border, killing three people and injuring dozens more
Pakistani officials evacuated more than 50 Chinese nationals working near the Kashmir frontier, authorities said on Wednesday, after skirmishes with India killed at least three people and injured dozens.
The Chinese were working on a dam being constructed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir along the confluence of the Neelam and Jhelum rivers when firing pushed authorities to move the workers late Tuesday, according to Akhtar Ayub from the local disaster management authority.
Another local official Raja Shahid Mahmood said the decision was made after Indian security forces fired a volley of “indiscriminate fire that killed three people including a woman and a child and wounded 31 others during the last 24 hours.”
Tensions remain high with India after the neighbors launched tit-for-tat airstrikes in February following a suicide bombing in India-Occupied Kashmir that was perpetrated by a local separatist but claimed by Pakistan-based militants. Since then they have stepped back from the brink, but firing between the two sides across the de-facto border dividing Kashmir has continued.
Kashmir is ruled in part but claimed in full by both countries, who have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over it.
The latest incident comes after U.S. President Donald Trump triggered a political fiasco in India last week by claiming during a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan that Indian leader Narendra Modi had asked him to mediate in the Kashmir dispute. India vehemently denied that Modi had made any such request, saying the Kashmir issue must be resolved bilaterally between the two countries.