Pakistan said four civilians were killed in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, while India said that at least three civilians died on its side as a result of the Pakistani bombings.
At least a dozen people were killed in cross-border fighting on Friday between Pakistan and Indian military forces in the disputed Kashmir region.
According to Indian officials, eight people were killed, including five members of the Indian army and three civilians, in cross-border shelling at various locations in the northern part of Indian-administered Kashmir.
More than a dozen people were also injured in the heavy shelling that began early Friday morning and continued into the night at various locations in the north of the disputed region.
Meanwhile, four civilians were killed on Friday and another 22 were injured in the Neelum Valley region of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, an official from the Pakistani civil administration told Al Jazeera.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned a high-ranking Indian diplomat to protest the killings in Pakistani-administered Kashmir by Indian bombings, according to a statement.
“Deaths and injuries are being reported throughout the Neelum Valley,” said Safeer Butt, the official.
The Indian diplomat was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in the Pakistani capital Islamabad to “underline[e] that such senseless acts are a clear violation of the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding, and against all established humanitarian standards and professional military conduct ”on Friday, the statement said.
A day earlier, at least one Pakistani civilian, Muhammad Bashir, 55, was killed by Indian bombardment in the Rakhchikhri sector of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of the regional capital Muzaffarabad.
Three other civilians were injured in an Indian bombardment in the village of Samni, about 150 kilometers (93 miles per hour) southeast of Muzaffarabad, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.
‘Continue living in fear’
Muhammad Shakoor, 50, a resident of the village of Balkote in Indian-administered Kashmir, who lost three of his neighbors in the bombing on Friday, told Al Jazeera that they “continue to live in fear.”
“People only remember us when we die. We live this death every day, ”he told Al Jazeera by phone.
“The government is not providing us bunkers so that we can save ourselves during the bombing. We are caught between the bullets of two sides. Here we do not sleep or find peace ”.
Heavy shelling and shooting continued on Friday across the Line of Control (LdC), which divides Pakistani-administered and Indian-administered Kashmir, continued on Friday, according to reports.
A ceasefire has been in effect throughout the LoC since 2003, but both India and Pakistan violate it frequently, each routinely blaming the other for initiating hostilities.
Both countries claim the disputed mountainous territory of Kashmir in its entirety, but administer separate parts of it. They have fought two of their three wars for the region since gaining independence from the British in 1947.
According to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, India has violated the ceasefire at least 2,729 times this year, resulting in the death of 21 civilians and serious injuries to another 206 people.
.
