Thu 15 August 2019:
Pakistan said on Thursday three of its soldiers and five Indian troops were killed in cross-border exchange of fire in the contested Kashmir region, one of the deadliest clashes between the rival armies this year.
Indian forces have increased firing along the contested border known as the Line of Control (LOC), Major General Asif Ghafoor, the chief spokesman of the Pakistan armed forces, said in a tweet. “Intermittent exchange of fire continues,” Ghafoor tweeted.
Indian troops fired artillery across the LoC dividing the Himalayan valley into territories controlled by the two countries, resulting in the death of the Pakistani soldiers, the army said in a statement. Pakistani troops returned fire, killing five Indian soldiers and damaging Indian bunkers.
The police and military said three Pakistani soldiers were killed when Indian troops targeted their post in Leepa town along the Line of Control, and two civilians died when mortars fired by India hit a village in Poonch town.
A senior local official also told AFP that two civilians were killed and one injured by the Indian troops along the LoC in Rawalakot district in Pakistani-held Kashmir. Mirza Arshad Jarral said intermittent exchanges of fire between the two militaries had been going on since morning.
An Indian army spokesman denied casualties on the Indian side. “No casualties. This assertion is wrong,” the spokesman said. In a statement, the Indian army said that from around 0700 local time Pakistan violated a ceasefire between the two nations.
Though such clashes are relatively common between the nuclear-armed neighbors, Thursday’s incident comes just days after the Indian government stripped the Muslim-majority region of its special constitutional autonomy, angering Pakistan which also has claims on the region.
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