A father and
daughter were killed in the Indian part of the disputed Kashmir region on
Saturday in Pakistani army firing across the de facto border, and three of
their relatives
were wounded, an Indian military spokesman said.
It was the
second major ceasefire violation in the area in days. A woman was killed and
her husband wounded by Pakistani firing across the de facto border dividing
Kashmir and early on Thursday.
"Pakistani
troops initiated indiscriminate firing," said the Indian spokesman,
Lieutenant-Colonel Manish Mehta, adding that Pakistani forces had fired with
various weapons from small arms to large caliber mortars in the Nowshera
sector.
A mortar bomb
hit a home in a village near the Line of Control, which separates the two sides
in Kashmir, inflicting the casualties, he said.
Indian forces
retaliated "strongly and effectively", he said, adding the
authorities had closed all schools in the area.
A Pakistani
military spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Pakistan on
Thursday condemned what it called "unprovoked" Indian firing in the
area.
India and
Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence in 1947, two of them
over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir which they both claim in
full but rule in part.
Clashes
between their forces in Kashmir largely stopped after a 2003 ceasefire but
exchanges of fire have been more common over the past couple of years.
Occasional
efforts to improve ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours through talks have
achieved little, while protests against Indian rule in its part of Kashmir have
flared violently over the past year.
India accuses
Muslim Pakistan of supporting separatist insurgents fighting security forces in
Indian Kashmir. Pakistan denies that.
REUTERS
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