Five killed as India and Pakistan trade fire

Islamabad, July 16: India and Pakistan exchanged gunfire and mortar bombs along the Line of Control (LoC) on Thursday, killing five civilians and injuring more than a dozen, Pakistan said, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif agreed to high-level talks.
According to the Pakistan army, at least five Pakistani civilians were killed “due to Indian unprovoked firing”. This came even as India said that a woman on its side of the frontier was killed in Pakistani firing.
The Indian army said Pakistani troops fired at five of its forward bases and six villagers on Wednesday, when the woman was killed. “Pakistani Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing using small arms and mortars,” an Indian military spokesman said.
Pakistani media reported that three people were killed and five others injured in Sialkot’s Chaprar sector, whereas another person was killed in firing across the Line of Control (LoC) in Rawalakot’s Neza Pir sector in separate instances of ‘unprovoked’ firing by Indian Border Security Forces on Thursday, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
Those killed in Sialkot have been identified as Ghulam Mustafa, Rahat and Muhammad Boota. Zarina Bibi, an 18-year-old, was killed in Rawalakot.
D. Parekh of India’s BSF said that Pakistani troops fired heavy mortar shells, adding that one woman was killed and three civilians injured when one of the shells exploded near a border village. Parekh had alleged that Pakistani soldiers first fired at a paramilitary soldier guarding a border post in the Pargwal area. As troops tried to evacuate the seriously injured soldier, they came under heavy fire and retaliated, he had said.