Indian and Pakistani troops had exchanged artillery and small arms fire along the disputed Kashmir de facto border overnight, the Indian army stated Thursday. The nuclear foes witnessed their most intense violence in two decades on Wednesday, after India conducted deadly missile attacks against its neighbour, as days of recurrent gunfire on their border boiled over into artillery bombardment.
India stated its Wednesday attacks had destroyed nine locations in Pakistan, two weeks after New Delhi accused Islamabad of supporting an attack on Indian-administered disputed Kashmir tourist sites — a claim denied by Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stated in a televised address late Wednesday that Islamabad would “avenge” those killed by India. At least 43 deaths have been reported across both sides of the border together due to Wednesday’s violence.
Islamabad reported 31 civilians were killed by the Indian firing and strikes along the border, and New Delhi included at least 12 fatalities from Pakistani shelling. Pakistan did not immediately confirm the latest reported violence along the frontier.
At night. Pakistani Army posts unleashed indiscriminate fire with small weapons and artillery guns along the LoC (the Line of Control) in sectors opposite Kupwara, Baramulla, Uri and Akhnoor sectors in Jammu and Kashmir,” the army stated in a release, and said it had “responded proportionately”. Diplomats and leaders of the world have urged the two nations to back away from the edge.
“I would love to see them stop,” US President Donald Trump said Wednesday. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will meet his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday in New Delhi, days after having visited Pakistan, as Tehran works to broker between the two countries.
India and Pakistan have clashed several times since the violent Partition of British colonial rule in 1947, when colonial administrators drew straight-line borders on a map to divide the countries, splitting people. Muslim-majority Kashmir — which both India and Pakistan claim — has repeatedly been a flashpoint.
