Four die in Kashmir shelling, Pakistan says

October 27, 2000
Web posted at: 5:47 AM HKT (2147 GMT)

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -- Indian troops shelled villages on the Pakistani side of a military control line in disputed Kashmir Thursday, killing four civilians and wounding 11, the Pakistani authorities said.

A military statement, quoted by the official APP news agency, said two civilians, including a 6-year-old child, were killed by Indian mortar and artillery fire in the Rawalakot sector of the Himalayan region that also caused "loss of property."

Two other civilians were killed and four more injured by similar shelling in the Neelum valley of the Pakistan-ruled part of Kashmir, the state radio quoted local officials as saying.

Indian troops fired some 400 mortar bombs and artillery shells, it said of the alleged violations reported on the eve of the 53rd anniversary of the start of the first Indo-Pakistan war over Kashmir.

"This unprovoked act of naked aggression is a routine exercise of Indian forces along the Line of Control to demoralise the gallant people of Kashmir," APP said.

The two sides frequently fire across the 720-km (450-mile) line that lies between about 45 percent of Kashmir ruled by India and more than a third by Pakistan. The remainder of the territory is held by China.

In its part of Kashmir, India is fighting a decade-old separatist revolt that it says is helped by Pakistan.

Islamabad denies the charge and says it only gives moral and political support to "freedom fighters" in Kashmir, over which India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

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