Pakistan: Cross-border fire kills four Kashmiris

Cross-border fighting between nuclear-armed neighbours continues in Himalayan region with claims of Indian troop losses.

21 Nov 2016 17:33 GMT

There was no immediate response to the allegation from Indian officials [Roshan Mughal/AP]

Four people, including two children, have been killed and 10 others wounded in cross-border fire in disputed Kashmir, the latest casualties in ongoing skirmishes between Pakistan and India.

"At the Line of Control [LoC] four civilians embraced [martyrdom] and 10 were injured," Pakistan's military said in a brief statement on Monday.

"There are reports of heavy casualties of Indian soldiers due to effective retaliatory fire by Pakistani troops," it added, claiming at least six Indian troops had been killed.

No immediate response to the allegation came from Indian officials.

Pakistani officials said two children and a woman were among those killed on Monday, in heavy shelling by Indian forces, in three separate sectors along the LoC - the de facto border - in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Tensions across the long-disputed Himalayan border reached dangerous levels in September after India blamed Pakistani fighters for a raid on an army base that killed 19 soldiers.

India said it responded by carrying out "surgical strikes" across the heavily militarised border, sparking a furious reaction from Islamabad, which denied any attacks took place.

There have since been repeated outbreaks of cross-border firing, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries, including of civilians.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both nuclear-armed rivals claim the territory in full and have fought two of three wars over the mountainous region.