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Two Civilians Killed in Cross-Border Fire

by AFP
Tauseef Mustafa—AFP

Tauseef Mustafa—AFP

Pakistani officials claim Indian troops opened fire near the border with Sialkot.

Pakistani officials on Saturday accused Indian troops of killing two civilians in “unprovoked firing” across the border in Punjab province.

The latest incident occurred in Sialkot region, which faces the south of Indian-administered Kashmir, and was also the site of another civilian getting killed by Indian firing last month.

“Today Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) again resorted to unprovoked firing in Chaprar and Harpal sectors on the working boundary near Sialkot. Two civilians including a woman and a 60-year-old man were martyred due to BSF firing,” a senior military official told AFP. “Intermittent exchange of fire is still continuing at this moment,” the official said.

Last month, Indian police also accused the Pakistan Army of killing a soldier and wounding seven other people during firing along the border in the same region.

On Aug. 8, Pakistan freed an Indian soldier captured after he was swept into Pakistan-administered Kashmir when his patrol boat capsized. However, on Aug. 11 both countries again exchanged accusations of cross-border firing.

The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided and administered separately by India and Pakistan but claimed by both in full. Since 1989 fighting between Indian forces and rebels seeking independence or merger of the territory with Pakistan has killed tens of thousands, mostly civilians.

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