India, Pakistan cross border fire kills three
January 5, 2015
Tension at the border between India and Pakistan rose on Monday after shelling and gunfire killed an Indian soldier and two civilians in Pakistan.
A Pakistan military spokesperson confirmed the information in a statement, saying that an 18-year-old boy and a woman in Pakistan were killed in Indian Border Security Force shelling. "Pakistani rangers are effectively responding to Indian firing," the statement added.
Earlier on Monday, an Indian soldier was killed in another clash at the border in Kashmir, Indian officials said.
Indian and Pakistani soldiers had been exchanging fire across the border at different places for almost six days on Monday. Around 4,000 were evacuated from Indian border villages since the new year and sent to government-run relief camps.
The violence between the two neighbors comes days before US Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to visit India, when he will speak at a summit in Gujarat - at the far end of India's border with Pakistan. Later in January, US President Barack Obama will attend the Indian Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars after the British left the Indian subcontinent in 1947. Minor skirmishes between the nuclear-armed neighbors are common, but the last such cross-border firing in October 2014 left nine civilians dead.
India accuses Pakistan of sending militants into India-administered Kashmir, a charge which Pakistan denies.
mg/bw (AFP, AP, Reuters)