December 25, 2002	Wednesday	Shawwal 20, 1423

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MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 24: A man was killed along the Line of Control in Azad Kashmir in heavy Indian shelling overnight Monday, official sources said here on Tuesday. The man, identified as Ghulam Mohammad, son of Mutawalli, died in the village of Jura, in the lower belt of Neelum valley, in northeast of Muzaffarabad, late on Monday night after the shelling became intense in the evening, local military sources said.

Police said a number of villages in the valley, which straddles the Line of Control, were hit by the Indian troops with mortars and medium artillery without any provocation.

In the village of Jargi, also in the lower belt, at least three houses were damaged, but fortunately no casualty occurred, a police official told this correspondent.

Three people were injured in Neelum valley on early Monday, after they fell victim to the enemy shelling on the main Neelum valley road, which the Indian troops can hit with small arms.

Indian shelling, the police official said, was also reported from Abbaspur sector villages in the southern Poonch district at 10am on Tuesday, where it killed an ox in Pothi village.

Officials say shelling along the restive Line of Control has again intensified these days for reasons not known to them.