Pakistan, India trade fire along Kashmir border

Four people were killed, and eight wounded as Pakistani and Indian border guards fired at each other Friday night. While minor skirmishes are common along the Kashmir border, the worst cease-fire violation took place in October 2014. 

Pakistani and Indian border guards traded artillery fire along the disputed border region of Kashmir, killing four people and wounding eight, officials said Saturday.

Both Pakistan and India blamed each other for starting the fire that began Friday night. This latest violence comes after Islamabad blamed Indian forces for killing two of its soldiers Wednesday in a crossfire that also killed an Indian soldier.

In a statement Saturday, the Pakistani military said that Indian forces violated the cease-fire agreement between the two countries with an unprovoked barrage of artillery Friday night near the city of Sialkot, killing a 13-year-old girl and wounding another child. It said Pakistani soldiers returned fire.

In India, police officer Rajesh Kumar said Pakistani shelling in the Kathua sector killed a woman and wounded seven villagers.

D. Parekh, a Border Security Force officer, said the firing continued Saturday in at least half a dozen places.

"One place goes quiet, the firing starts at another place," Parekh said. Indian officials blamed Pakistan for beginning the fire without provocation.

An Indian military official said Pakistani troops fired at also Indian positions in the Tangdhar sector, killing two Indian soldiers late Friday night. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to journalists.

Shantamanu, a top Indian official who uses one name, said authorities evacuated 800 people from several border villages to state-run relief camps Saturday because of the firing. Another 700 people also fled, he said.

Kashmir is claimed by both India and Pakistan. The two countries have fought two wars over the Himalayan region since they won independence from Britain in 1947.

While minor skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani troops are common along the 125-mile border, the worst violation of the cease-fire accord took place in October over the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and killed nine civilians in Pakistan and nine in India.

Hussain reported from Srinagar, India. Associated Press writer Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Pakistan, India trade fire along Kashmir border
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0103/Pakistan-India-trade-fire-along-Kashmir-border
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe