Exchange of fire between India, Pakistan kills 2 civilians

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir - Two people, including a 13-year-old girl, were killed on Saturday in continued exchange of heavy firing and shelling between border guards of India and Pakistan along the International Border (IB) in disputed Kashmir, officials said.

India said Pakistan Rangers targeted their posts in Samba and Hiranagar sectors, about 53 km south of Jammu, the winter capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, while Pakistani officials blamed India's Border Security Force (BSF) for unprovoked firing near Sialkot on their side.

"The firing and shelling from the Pakistan side has left a woman dead and at least nine other civilians injured," a BSF official said. "The woman along with her son was hit inside her house at Rajpura after being hit by a mortar shell from Pakistan."

Officials said the intermittent exchange of fire, which started Friday night, lasted until Saturday morning.

The wounded were shifted to Government Medical College hospital in Jammu, officials said.

India's official broadcaster, All India Radio, said local administration and police have started evacuating people to safer areas and initiated relief operations in the affected villages.

Pakistan's Radio Pakistan quoted the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) as saying, a 13-year -old girl was killed and an eight-year-old boy was wounded by Indian firing.

Both New Delhi and Islamabad accused each other of violating a ceasefire agreement.

The latest flare-up of firing erupted on the New Year eve, resulting in the death of an Indian and two Pakistani troopers.

Reports said Sartaj Aziz, a security and foreign affairs adviser to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, wrote a letter to Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Sawraj, protesting the killing of two Pakistani troopers on Wednesday and called for "an immediate investigation into the incident."

Pakistan alleged that Indian border guards shot dead the two soldiers after inviting them for a flag meeting.

India and Pakistan intermittently exchange fire on a 720-km- long Line of Control (LoC) and 198-km-long IB in Kashmir despite a 2003 ceasefire deal. Though some violations have been reported on both sides, the ceasefire remains in effect.

India said 564 ceasefire violations - 411 along IB and 153 along LoC - were recorded last year.

During the deadly skirmishes, 20 people, including six Indian troopers, were killed and over 150 wounded on the Indian side. Pakistan, according to reports, also suffered causalities in the standoff.

LoC is a de facto border that divides Kashmir into the India- and Pakistan-controlled parts. The LoC on both sides is guarded by army, while the IB is guarded by BSF on the Indian side and Pakistan Rangers on the other side.