MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 31: Five women and an infant were killed and two others wounded in southern Kotli district of Azad Kashmir on Sunday in unrelenting and indiscriminate Indian shelling, police said.

The shelling with machineguns, mortars and medium artillery started at noon in the Nakyal sector without any provocation, targeting mainly civilian population in different villages along the restive LoC, police officer Raja Zafar Hussain told Dawn here.

He said a shell landed on a house in Til Mera village, killing Zobaida Begum, 18, wife of Mohammad Ishtiaq, on the spot and injuring her one-year old daughter, Sonia. The infant died on way to the hospital.

Shazia, 15, daughter of Abdul Ghani; Asia Bibi, 19, daughter of Mohammad Siddique; Abida, 15, daughter of Abdur Rashid; and Robina, 15, daughter of Sakhi Mohammad were killed in Palani, Hatli, Inderla Nar and Sihala Mohra villages, respectively, after being hit by fragments of shells, Mr Hussain said, adding that Ejaz, 16, son of Lal Deen, and Mohammad Ghafoor, 25, son of Talib Hussain, were injured in villages of Ooli Panjni and Ghantarbala.