At least 12 people, including four children, were killed and 57 others injured as the Pakistan Army resorted to heavy artillery and mortar shelling on forward villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, officials said.The intense shelling from across the border started shortly after Indian armed forces carried out missile attacks on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir to avenge the April 22 terror attack in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam that had left 26 civilians dead.
The officials said the Indian Army is responding to the shelling in a befitting manner, resulting in many casualties on the enemy side after several of their posts engaged in firing were destroyed
The worst-hit in the Pakistani shelling was Poonch district which accounted for all the civilian deaths, the officials said, adding 42 people were also injured and the condition of some of them was stated to be serious.
The indiscriminate shelling by Pakistan created panic among the border residents who were forced to take refuge in underground bunkers or shift to safer places within or outside their villages, the officials said.
The shelling was reported from all along the LoC in Poonch, including Balakote, Mendhar, Mankote, Krishna Ghati, Gulpur, Kerni and even Poonch district headquarters, resulting in damage to dozens of houses and vehicles, they said.
The officials identified the deceased as Balvinder Kour alias “Ruby” (33), Mohd Zain Khan (10), his elder sister 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) and Mohd Rafi (40).