Indian and Pakistani forces have left more than 13 dead and dozens wounded on both sides of their disputed Kashmir frontier on Friday in their biggest artillery battle of the past year officials said.
Artillery and machine gun clashes were reported all along the 740-kilometre (460-mile) ceasefire line that has separated the nuclear-armed rivals for the past seven decades, officials from the two sides said.
Hundreds of villagers were moved away from the so-called Line of Control in Indian-controlled territory, while Pakistani officials said dozens of homes were set ablaze by Indian shelling on their side.
The new peak in tensions came only five days after three Indian soldiers and three militants were killed in an exchange along the LoC.
India is also involved in a border showdown with the Chinese army in the Himalayas.
The latest fighting erupted early Friday, with the two sides accusing each other of launching “unprovoked” assaults, and shells were still being fired into the night, residents said.
“Pakistan used mortars and other weapons” and “deliberately targeted civilian areas”, said an Indian army statement.
Four Indian troops and four civilians, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed, army and police spokesmen said. At least 12 security forces and civilians were wounded.
On the other side of the border, Raja Farooq Haider, senior minister in Pakistani Kashmir, said five people were killed and 31 wounded in the intense shelling on the Neelum and Jhelum valleys.
The Pakistani military confirmed one of the dead was a soldier.
“For how long (do) we have to bear such colossal losses?” he said in a Twitter message directed at Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Indian officers said the fighting was sparked when militants tried to cross into Indian-controlled territory at the northern end of the LoC.
Indian troops “retaliated strongly, causing substantial damage to the Pakistan army’s infrastructure and casualties,” said the military statement, adding that ammunition dumps and forward bases had been hit.
