Villagers flee as fighting intensifies in Kashmir
Kashmiri villagers have reportedly been forced to flee as fighting intensifies along the so-called Line of Control (LoC) that divides India and Pakistan.
Indian police said hundreds of villagers had to flee because of intensified fighting, including with artillery fire on Saturday.
Pakistani media cited sources in the Inter-Services Public Relations as saying that one citizen had been killed while three others were injured on Saturday as Indian soldiers initiated mortar fire in Thurti Narr Village outside Nikayal sector in Kotli district.
A statement issued by the Pakistan Foreign Office said Indian forces had committed more than 400 violations of a 2003 ceasefire since the start of 2018, killing 17 civilians and injuring 68 others through the use of heavy mortars and automatic weapons.
It is not clear what caused the intensified fighting on Saturday in the Uri sector but tensions have been running high since an attack on an Indian army camp in Kashmir this month in which six soldiers were killed.
New Delhi said the army had proof that Pakistan had been behind the deadly attacks, adding that Islamabad would “pay for this misadventure.”
Since partition in 1947, India and Pakistan have three times gone to war over Kashmir. Both countries claim the region in full but rule over parts of it. They reached a ceasefire in 2003, but that agreement has been violated numerous times, with each side accusing the other of initiating fire.
New Delhi also accuses Pakistan of backing a separatist movement in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan denies the accusation and calls for peace talks to resolve the decades-long dispute.
The majority of the 12.5mn population of Indian-controlled Kashmir is Muslim.
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