India and Pakistan blamed each other Friday for exchanges of fire
over their disputed border that killed nine civilians and wounded dozens more.
The violence is
the latest flareup along the heavily armed frontier.
Six people were
killed and 46 were wounded on the Pakistani side, its military said in a
statement.
Three people
were killed and eight were wounded on the Indian side, said Pawan Kotwal, a
military official.
Both sides
accused each other of starting the gunfire and shelling across the border.
Pakistan said
villages were hit near the city of Sialkot in Punjab province. India said the
Pakistani fire struck areas of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Neither side
reported any casualties among military personnel.
Recent breaches of border truce
Since their independence from British
colonial rule in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them
over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
The two
nuclear-armed neighbors had agreed to a bilateral ceasefire in border regions
in November 2003, and the agreement held for roughly a decade.
But there has been
a series of breaches in recent years.
Indian-controlled
Kashmir has been the site of violence between separatists and security forces
since 1989, a conflict that has claimed more than 43,000 lives.
Security talks canceled
The Kashmir issue led to the cancellation of planned security
talks between the two nations
earlier this week.
Pakistan's
national security adviser Sartaj Aziz was scheduled to visit New Delhi on
Sunday for two-day talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval.
India objected
to Aziz's planned meeting with Indian Kashmiri separatist leaders on the
margins of the official negotiations. Both sides also squabbled over whether
the talks should cover the Kashmir dispute.
But the spat
didn't end all efforts at dialogue.
Pakistan
announced Wednesday that the two countries' border security force chiefs plan
to meet in New Delhi next month.
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