[The clashes were the latest in recent weeks along the heavily militarized border that divides Kashmir between Pakistan and India, and it raised the specter of more unrest between the two nuclear-armed rivals.]
By Annie Gowen and Aamir Iqbal
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Pakistani villagers in
Kashmir rebuild damaged homes on Nov. 21, near the line
separating Pakistani- and
Indian-controlled zones. (Roshan Mughal/AP)
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NEW DELHI — Heavy cross-border shelling in
the disputed Kashmir region killed at least three Pakistani soldiers and seven
Indian troops on Wednesday, Pakistan’s military said, in a sharp escalation of
violence after a deadly ambush of three Indian soldiers. At least 10 civilians
also were killed, witnesses said.
Pakistan’s military announced the death toll
of both Pakistani and Indian forces. There was no word from India on the
casualty count. A senior official with India’s paramilitary border forces said
at least two personnel were injured.
The clashes were the latest in recent weeks
along the heavily militarized border that divides Kashmir between Pakistan and
India, and it raised the specter of more unrest between the two nuclear-armed
rivals.
Later Wednesday, the directors general of the
two militaries held talks, but it was unclear whether it could help cool
tensions.
On Tuesday, the Indian army vowed that
“retribution will be heavy” after three soldiers were ambushed and killed while
on border patrol in the rugged Machil area on the Indian side of the border.
The body of one of the soldiers was mutilated, military officials said.
[India’s prime minister ran as tough-talking
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“Condemn the cowardly and brutal killing of
our soldiers, and mutilation of one of them. Salute these brave martyrs for
their supreme sacrifice,” India’s defense minister, Manohar Parrikar, said in a
tweet.
The Pakistani military said Wednesday that a
“heavy exchange” of fire continued along the densely wooded and mountainous
area that separates the Indian- and Pakistan-administered parts of Kashmir.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif decried the “continuing naked Indian
aggression.”
Reports also indicated civilian deaths.
Khawaja Basharat, 40, a truck driver in the Neelum Valley in Pakistan, said a
mortar shell hit a bus, killing eight people and seriously wounding several.
Basharat said he heard a loud boom and rushed
to the area to help the injured. Two other civilians were killed in an area
further south Wednesday, witnesses said, including a teenage girl.
On the Indian-controlled side, Ghulam Ahmad
Khan, 62, fled the border village of Gulud in late October after shelling
killed his wife. He now lives with his daughter in Mendhar, a bit farther from
the conflict area.
“We hope that the border firing stops and
there are no more killings,’’ he said.
Relations between the two regional rivals
have been tense since Pakistani militants attacked an Indian military outpost
on Sept. 18, killing 19 Indian soldiers.
Eleven days later, India responded with what
it described as “surgical strikes” on about a half-dozen sites in Pakistan that
India described as staging grounds for militants waiting to cross the border.
It is unclear how many of the alleged militants were killed in those raids;
Pakistan has said only that two of its soldiers died in the attack.
Since then, cross-border skirmishes have
become a near-daily occurrence in the contested area, with a dozen civilians
and 17 security personnel estimated to have been killed in India and 30
civilians and 15 soldiers killed on the Pakistani side. Hundreds have been evacuated
from villages in border areas, but many have remained behind to tend crops and
livestock.
Diplomatic relations have been frosty,
although Pakistan’s foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, is to attend a
two-day regional conference in Amritsar, India, beginning Dec. 3.
The two countries technically have a
cease-fire agreement in place that dates to 2003, but officials said both sides
regularly violate it.
Iqbal reported from Peshawar, Pakistan.
Ishfaq Naseem in Srinagar, India, contributed to this report.
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