At least 15 civilians and one soldier, including four children, were killed and 43 others injured in heavy cross-border shelling by the Pakistan Army in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.
The deceased include Balvinder Kour alias “Ruby” (33), Mohd Zain Khan (10), Zoya Khan (12), Mohd Akram (40), Amrik Singh (55), Mohd Iqbal (45), Ranjeet Singh (48), Shakeela Bi (40), Amarjeet Singh (47), Maryam Khatoon (7), Vihaan Bhargav (13), Mohd Rafi (40), and three others who are yet to be formally identified by the authorities.
The killed soldier is identified as L/Nk Dinesh Kumar of 5 Fd Regt.
The Pakistan Army’s intensification of mortar shelling in Rajouri and Poonch districts in the Jammu division, and Kupwara and Baramulla districts in the Kashmir Valley followed India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’ missile strikes on “terror camps” inside Pakistan on Tuesday night.
Heavy artillery exchanges were reported in the Uri and Tangdhar sectors of Kashmir Valley, but the most severe impact was felt in Jammu’s Poonch town, where shells struck homes, government offices, and public areas — a level of destruction not seen since the 1971 war between India and Pakistan.
Residents living close to the border areas were gripped with a sense of fear as casualties rose in the shelling incidents.
J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah chaired an emergency meeting with the Deputy Commissioners of all border districts through video conferencing to assess the situation in the wake of intense cross-border shelling in these districts. Abdullah directed the immediate release of ₹5 crore to each border district, and ₹2 crore to each of the other districts, “so that Deputy Commissioners are equipped to deal with the exigencies arising and requiring availability of adequate resources.”
Pakistan says 31 civilians killed in Indian attacks, India maintains only “terrorist bases” targeted
While India maintains it targeted only “terrorist bases” in Pakistan through “Operation Sindoor,” the neighbouring country claims the attacks resulted in civilian casualties.
Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, spokesperson for Pakistan’s armed forces, said Indian attacks have killed 31 civilians and injured dozens. Among the dead is seven-year-old Irtaza Abbas, he said.
Tensions have been escalating between the two nuclear-armed countries since a deadly attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, which India blamed on Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Jaish-e-Mohammed, one of the groups India has blamed for last month’s Pahalgam attack, said that 10 relatives of its leader Masood Azhar were killed in India’s attacks on Pakistan overnight, the Reuters news agency reported.
The group did not say whether Azhar himself was killed. Azhar was released from an Indian jail in 1999 in exchange for 155 hostages from a hijacked Indian Airlines plane.
