Eight civilians, including an Indian husband and wife and four members of a Pakistani family, were killed when Indian and Pakistani soldiers fired at border posts and villages along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir, officials said Friday. An Indian soldier was also killed in the fighting.
An Indian man mourns by the bodies of relatives, victims of cross-border firing, during a protest against the state government in Ranbir Singh Pura, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
The cross-border firing and shelling began overnight and spread to dozens of posts in the Jammu region of the Himalayan territory, said Indian police officer S.D. Singh.
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Eight civilians, including an Indian husband and wife and four members of a Pakistani family, were killed when Indian and Pakistani soldiers fired at border posts and villages along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir, officials said Friday. An Indian soldier was also killed in the fighting.
The cross-border firing and shelling began overnight and spread to dozens of posts in the Jammu region of the Himalayan territory, said Indian police officer S.D. Singh.
The husband and wife were killed when a shell fired from the Pakistani side hit their home, Indian police said. Two other civilians were also killed on the Indian side. At least 12 civilians were also wounded and were being treated in hospitals.
The exchange of fire between Pakistan and India continued for hours near Pakistan's city of Sialkot bordering Kashmir, forcing villagers to move to safer places.
According to the statement, the military said Indian fire also wounded 10 people, including three children.
Indian paramilitary officials said their soldiers responded to Pakistani gunfire and shelling, describing it as "unprovoked and indiscriminate." The officials said the paramilitary soldier was killed by a Pakistani sniper Thursday night, leading to cross-border firing and shelling at several forward posts.
An Indian boy inspects a house damaged in India-Pakistan cross border firing, in Chandu Chak village, Ranbir Singh Pura sector, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
The husband and wife were killed when a shell fired from the Pakistani side hit their home, Indian police said. Two other civilians were also killed on the Indian side. At least 12 civilians were also wounded and were being treated in hospitals.
A Pakistani woman, Kulsoom Hussain, and her three children were killed when a mortar fired by Indian troops from across the frontier struck their home, local police official Mohammad Amin said. The woman was making food at the time.
Indian women wail near the bodies of relatives, victims of cross-border firing, as they block a road during a protest against the state government in Ranbir Singh Pura, Jammu and Kashmir state, India, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
The exchange of fire between Pakistan and India continued for hours near Pakistan's city of Sialkot bordering Kashmir, forcing villagers to move to safer places.
In a statement, Pakistan army accused Indian troops of initiating an "unprovoked" violation of the 2003 cease-fire accord between the two countries along the frontier near Kashmir and targeting the civilian population, including four villagers who died Friday morning.
A Pakistani villager holds remains of a shell allegedly fired by Indian troops in Khanoor Mian, along the Line of Control in Pakistan, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Shahid Ikram)
According to the statement, the military said Indian fire also wounded 10 people, including three children.
It said Pakistani troops "effectively" responded and targeted the Indian posts from where the fire came.
The military said the artillery exchange was continuing. Pakistan's foreign ministry said the killed civilians were members of a family.
As in the past, each country accused the other of initiating the border skirmishes and violating the cease-fire agreement.
People attend funeral Pakistani villagers allegedly killed by Indian shelling in Khanoor Mian, along the Line of Control in Pakistan, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Shahif Ikram)
This year, soldiers from the two nations have engaged in fierce border skirmishes along the rugged and mountainous Line of Control, as well as a lower-altitude 200-kilometer (125-mile) boundary separating Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab, where Friday's fighting occurred.
Indian officials said the latest violence has sent thousands of people fleeing from their homes in dozens of frontier villages to government buildings converted into temporary shelters or to the houses of friends and relatives living in safer places. Bullets and shrapnel scarred homes and walls on both sides.
Singh, the Indian officer, said authorities were evacuating civilians living near the frontier in armored vehicles. The fighting earlier this year also sent thousands of border residents to temporary shelters for days.
Pakistan's foreign ministry summoned an Indian diplomat on Friday and lodged a strong protest over the killing of civilians along the frontier.
The ministry said Indian forces have carried out more than 1,050 cease-fire violations, resulting in the deaths of 28 civilians and injuries to 117 others.
"The cease-fire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation," it said in a statement.
Indian officials say Friday's killings took the death toll in such incidents to 20 civilians and 18 government troops this year in over 700 cease-fire violations initiated by Pakistan. They say dozens have been injured and scores of cattle have perished.
India and Pakistan have a long history of bitter relations over Kashmir, which both claim. They have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over their competing claims to the region.
The fighting has become a predictable cycle of violence as the region convulses with decades-old animosities between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, where rebel groups demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training anti-India rebels and also helping them by providing gunfire as cover for incursions into the Indian side.
Pakistan denies this, saying it offers only moral and diplomatic support to the militants and to Kashmiris who oppose Indian rule.
Rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber targeted a van carrying Japanese nationals in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, police said. The Japanese nationals escaped unharmed but officials later said one bystander was killed.
Initially, police said the van was heading to an industrial area where the five Japanese nationals worked when it came under attack, local police chief Arshad Awan said. Police escorting the Japanese returned fire, killing a second attacker, the bomber's accomplice, he said.
“All the Japanese who were the target of the attack are safe,” Awan added.
Police had initially said the five worked at Pakistan Suzuki Motors but later corrected that statement, saying it was another factory.
Images on local news channels showed a damaged van as police officers arrived at the scene. The three passersby who were wounded in the attack were taken to the hospital, where one later died. The two others were said to be in stable condition.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack in separate statements, praised police for their quick response and vowed to eliminate terrorism. They also offered prayers for the casualties.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed the Japanese nationals were unhurt and said it “strongly condemns this heinous act of terrorism. All necessary measures will be taken to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
“Pakistan remains committed to ensuring the safety of foreign nationals residing in the country," the ministry said.
The ministry said two Pakistani nationals were killed in Friday's attack, which contradicted the statements from police and hospital officials who said one of the three wounded died. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.
The van was given a police escort following reports of possible attacks targeting foreigners working in Pakistan on various Chinese-funded and other projects, said Tariq Mastoi, a senior police officer. He said a timely and quick response from the guards and police foiled the attack and both attackers were killed.
No one immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on separatists or the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks on security forces in recent years.
Insurgents have also targeted Chinese working in Pakistan on projects relating to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which includes a multitude of megaprojects such as road construction, power plants and agriculture.
In March, five Chinese and their Pakistani driver were killed when a suicide bomber in northwestern Pakistan rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle when they were heading to the Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in Pakistan, where they worked.
Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, is the capital of southern Sindh province.
Separately, an Afghan Taliban religious scholar, Mohammad Omar Jan Akhundzada, was killed on Thursday by gunmen inside a mosque in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, a local police officer Akram Ullah said.
No one claimed responsibility for that attack.
Chief Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Friday denounced the killing of Akhundzada, saying he taught at a jihadi seminary in Afghanistan's Kandahar province and was a member of the Taliban oversight committee of Islamic scholars.
Many Afghan leaders and scholars lived in Quetta and elsewhere in Pakistan before the Afghan Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew. Most then went back and it was unclear why Akhundzada was still in Pakistan.
Associated Press writer Abdul Sattar contributed to this story from Quetta, Pakistan.
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Pakistani investigators examine the body of an attacker at the scene of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. Several Japanese nationals traveling in a van narrowly escaped a suicide attack when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near their vehicle in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, wounding three passers-by, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Pakistani investigators take picture of the body of attacker at the site of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near a van carrying Japanese autoworkers, who narrowly escaped the attack Friday that wounded three bystanders in Pakistan's port city of Karachi, police said.(AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
A Pakistani police officer stands guard as investigators examine the scene of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near a van carrying Japanese autoworkers, who narrowly escaped the attack Friday that wounded some bystanders in Pakistan's port city of Karachi, police said.(AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Pakistani investigators examine a damaged van at the site of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near a van carrying Japanese autoworkers, who narrowly escaped the attack Friday that wounded three bystanders in Pakistan's port city of Karachi, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Pakistani investigators examine the site of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near a van carrying Japanese autoworkers, who narrowly escaped the attack Friday that wounded three bystanders in Pakistan's port city of Karachi, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
CORRECTS DATE - Police officers stand guard at the site of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. Five Japanese nationals traveling in a van narrowly escaped a suicide attack when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near their vehicle in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, wounding three passers-by, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
CORRECTS DATE - Pakistani investigators examine a damaged van at the site of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. Five Japanese nationals traveling in a van narrowly escaped a suicide attack when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near their vehicle in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, wounding three passers-by, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
CORRECTS DATE - Police officers examine a van at the site of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. Five Japanese nationals traveling in a van narrowly escaped a suicide attack when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near their vehicle in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, wounding three passers-by, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
CORRECTS DATE - Police officers stand guard at the site of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. Five Japanese nationals traveling in a van narrowly escaped a suicide attack when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near their vehicle in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, wounding three passers-by, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
CORRECTS DATE - A police officer stands guard at the site of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. Five Japanese nationals traveling in a van narrowly escaped a suicide attack when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near their vehicle in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, wounding three passers-by, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
CORRECTS DATE - Pakistani investigators examine a damaged van at the site of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. Five Japanese nationals traveling in a van narrowly escaped a suicide attack when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near their vehicle in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, wounding three passers-by, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Police officers examine a van at the site of suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 20, 2024. Five Japanese nationals traveling in a van narrowly escaped a suicide attack when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near their vehicle in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, wounding three passers-by, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Police officers stand guard at the site of suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 20, 2024. Five Japanese nationals traveling in a van narrowly escaped a suicide attack when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near their vehicle in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, wounding three passers-by, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Police officers stand guard at the site of suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 20, 2024. Five Japanese nationals traveling in a van narrowly escaped a suicide attack when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near their vehicle in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, wounding three passers-by, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
A police officer stands guard at the site of suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 20, 2024. Five Japanese nationals traveling in a van narrowly escaped a suicide attack when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near their vehicle in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, wounding three passers-by, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
