ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India exchanged fresh fire across the de-facto Kashmir border on Saturday, the military said, with Indian officials stating there was no damage, as tensions rise between the nuclear-armed rivals.
“Pakistani troops befittingly responded to Indian unprovoked firing” which started at 4am and continued for four hours in Bhimber sector on the Pakistani side of the border, the military said. According to the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR), Indian border forces also fired mortar shells at civilian population.
“There was small arms fire and mortar shells fire from across the border in Akhnoor sector which lasted for around two hours (4am to 6am),” Pawan Kotwal, a top civilian official in Indian-held Kashmir said. “No damage was caused. We are ready for any eventuality but it is peaceful in Jammu region.”
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif had earlier said that Pakistan was ready to deal with all kind of hostilities and would give a befitting response to any adventurism.
The skirmish came two days after India claimed it had carried out “surgical strikes” across the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC) on what it called “terrorist” targets several kilometres inside Azad Kashmir.
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