DHAMALA HAKIMWALA, PAKISTAN, OCT 09 -
Troops trading heavy fire between Pakistan and Indian-controlled
Kashmir have plunged civilians on both sides into grief with 18
villagers killed and dozens wounded this week, prompting many to
question how two nations committed to a 2003 cease-fire could be
targeting civilians while trading blame about who started shooting
first.
Iram Shazadi was making breakfast for her family Monday when bullets
started whizzing through her dusty Pakistani village of Dhamala
Hakimwala — about half a kilometer (quarter mile) from the border with
the Indian-administered portion of the disputed Himalayan region. A
mortar shell fired by Indian border forces slammed into her home and
killed her mother-in-law and two sons, aged 5 and 8.
"I lost my whole world," the injured 30-year-old said Wednesday at a
military hospital in Sialkot. She sat crying next to her 6-year-old son,
who narrowly escaped the blast.
On the Indian side, farmer Gulshan Kumar spent Tuesday night huddled
with his family at home while mortars from Pakistan fell on his village
of Chilyari.
"A shell landed in our neighbor's home, killing a 70-year-old woman and her 32-year-old daughter-in-law," Kumar told reporters.
The fighting over the past four nights marks the worst violation of the
2003 cease-fire accord brokered between India and Pakistan after
several years of almost-day border battles, officials on both sides say.
While minor skirmishes have been somewhat common over the years, many
were shocked that this week's fighting fell over the Muslim holiday of
Eid al-Adha and left civilian casualties — nine in Pakistan and nine in
India. The tally includes two women killed early Thursday after fresh
fighting erupted overnight, according to Press Trust of India.
Tens of thousands of villagers have fled their homes on both sides
since Sunday night, when the violence first erupted along the
200-kilometer (125-mile) border between Pakistan's Punjab province and
the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.
That lower-altitude frontier, guarded by paramilitary border forces, is
lined on both sides by agricultural fields and ancient villages that
have been there long before Pakistan and India gained independence in
1947 and began wrangling over Kashmir — fighting two of three wars over
their rival claims to the mountainous region.
"We have a very serious situation at hand right now," said Shantmanu, an Indian administrator in the area who uses one name.
Panicked villagers on both sides said they were desperate for peace.
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