SRINAGAR, India -- Eight civilians were killed and nine others wounded by Pakistani shelling Tuesday in Kashmir, Indian officials said, as cross-border firing by the two countries' troops escalated in the disputed region.
A police officer said six people, including two children, were killed by Pakistani shelling in Ramgarh sector. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with department policy.
Civil administrator Pawan Kotwal said two women also died in Rajouri sector in cross-border firing. He said at least nine civilians were injured. Kotwal said hundreds of civilians living in villages along the frontier have been evacuated to safer places in recent weeks and are spending nights in government-run shelters.
Thousands of villagers in the Pakistani-administered portion of Kashmir also moved to safer places as the cross-border shelling continued amid heightened tensions, said the region's revenue minister, Sardar Farooq Sikandar.
An army officer and a border guard official in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir said Indian soldiers "befittingly" replied to what they called an "unprovoked" violation of a 2003 cease-fire accord. The officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, said the exchange of fire was continuing at several places along the frontier.
The Indian and Pakistani armies guard the Line of Control that divides the two parts of Kashmir. Each country also has a separate paramilitary border force that guards the frontier separating Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab.
An Indian soldier was killed and four others were wounded when troops from the two nuclear-armed countries exchanged mortar rounds and gunfire in Rajouri sector on Monday night.
In Islamabad, the Pakistan Foreign Ministry summoned the Indian deputy high commissioner Tuesday and "strongly condemned unprovoked cease-fire violations" by Indian troops a day earlier.
Information for this article was contributed by Munir Ahmed of The Associated Press.
A Section on 11/02/2016