Three Pakistani villagers were killed when Pakistani and Indian troops traded fire across their tense border in the disputed region of Kashmir for a fourth consecutive day Monday, a Pakistani official said.
The rival nuclear-armed forces, locked in a tense military standoff since December, also exchanged fire across the border in Pakistan's central Punjab province, Pakistani witnesses and Indian police said.
"The Indian army fired mortar bombs into Samani sector last night," Fayyaz Abbasi, deputy commissioner of southern Bhimber district in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir told Reuters. He said the shelling continued for about an hour and a half.
"It was heavy fire and local people have told us that three people have been killed," he said.
He said eight villagers were wounded by Indian fire and the latest casualties took the toll in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir to 10 dead and 52 wounded in the past four days.
Witnesses said the Indian army also fired mortars into all four Pakistani sectors -- Bijwat, Chaprar, Charwah and Shakargarh -- near the Punjabi border town of Sialkot. One man was wounded in Charwah sector.
(China Daily May 21, 2002)
