Indian shelling kills two in AJK

Published October 26, 2002

MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 25: A teenaged boy and a woman were killed and four people wounded by Indian shelling in Azad Kashmir, police and army said on Friday.

The firing came a day after India said it had begun pulling back its soldiers from the international border with Pakistan after the longest and biggest peacetime deployment of troops in India’s history.

The police said Indian troops fired mortar bombs across the Line of Control, starting on Thursday night at Athmaqam, 80km northeast of here.

The firing killed a 15-year-old boy and a woman and wounded four people including a child.

“The human and material losses could be higher as we are unable to assess the situation because of the persistent Indian shelling on the town,” an army spokesman said in Muzaffarabad.

“The Indians have fired more than 150 mortar and artillery bombs on the town since Thursday night.”

He said Pakistani troops returned fire and wounded or killed at least eight Indian troops and destroyed four bunkers across the boundary.

The police said sporadic firing continued throughout the Thursday night and it intensified again on Friday morning and continued throughout the day.—Reuters