Four people were killed, including three children, when Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged artillery and mortar fire over their disputed border in Kashmir, police said Friday. The shelling took place overnight in two areas -- the Karna sector of the northern Kashmir district of Kupwara, which borders Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and the Uri sector of Baramulla district.
"Pakistani shells landed in Jabdi village in the Karna sector killing two girls and a boy," a police spokesman said. The girls were aged five and six, while the boy was nine-years-old, he said.
Three others, including two women, were also injured. Earlier three civilians, including a brother and sister, were injured in cross-border shelling in the same area.
In the other shelling incident a man was killed, while another civilian was injured, in the village of Hatlanga in Uri, again overnight, the spokesman said.
Indian and Pakistani troops have been exchanging heavy artillery, mortar and rocket fire over the Line of Control (LoC) -- the defacto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan -- for the past two days. Both India and Pakistan blamed each other for starting the shelling on Thursday, which Pakistan said left a woman dead.
An Indian army spokesman in Srinagar blamed Pakistani troops for opening fire at Indian army positions.
"The fire was retaliated by our troops," he said. Bureau Report