June 15, 2002	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1423

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MUZAFFARABAD, June 14: Five persons, including three women and a child, were killed and eight others were injured in unrelenting Indian shelling from across the Line of Control in Azad Kashmir on Friday, police said.

The killings occurred in Nakyal and Forward Kahuta sectors in the southern districts of Kotli and Bagh, respectively, and the victims were from two families.

In Nakyal sector, police said, heavy Indian shelling resumed at 9:30am and one of the shells landed in the courtyard of a house in Hatli Bala village, killing Mohammad Iqbal, 60, his 6-year-old son, Shahzad, and a relative, Parveen Akhtar, 22, wife of Mohammad Riaz.

Iqbal’s wife, Jamila, 35, son Irshad, 15, and daughters, Rabia 4, and an infant Asia, were injured.

Three more civilians, Shaheen, 35, Abdur Rehman, 7, and Maida, 5, were injured in Majwal village in the adjoining Khuiratta sector, also in Kotli district, at 11:45am.

The Pakistan army swiftly and effectively responded to unprovoked shelling of civilian populations by the Indian troops and inflicted considerable losses on the enemy, an ISPR officer said here.

“At least 15 Indian soldiers were killed and wounded in our retaliatory fire across Nakyal sector in occupied Kashmir. Four of the enemy bunkers were also completely destroyed,” the officer claimed.

In Forward Kahuta sector, shelling continued for three hours from 12 noon to 3pm. Two women, Kaseeran Bibi, 45, and Thoomi Bibi, 40, (both wives of Ghulam Mohammad) were killed when a shell hit their house in Digwar village. Another girl, Sakina, 16, was injured in the same village. Police said Indian troops also shelled Abbaspur and Hajira sectors of the southern Poonch district.