Srinagar, India (AP) – Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged heavy stoles of shells and shots through their border in cashmere during the night, killing at least five civilians in the middle of growth military This broke out following an attack on tourists in the part controlled by India in the contested region.
In Pakistan, an unusually intense night of artillery exchanges left at least four dead civilians and injured 12 others in areas near the control line that divides Cashmeresaid local police manager Adeel Ahmad. Residents of border towns said the shots were continuing well on Friday morning.
“We are used to hearing the fire exchange between Pakistan and India at the control line, but last night was different,” said Mohammad Shakil, who lives near the border in the Chakothi sector.
In India, military officials said that Pakistani troops have crossed their posts overnight with artillery, mortars and shots in several places. They said the Indian soldiers responded, triggering ferocious exchanges until early dawn.
A woman was killed and two other civilians were injured in the URI sector, police said, passing the number of civilian people in India at 17 since Wednesday.
Rivals Exchange of strikes and allegations
Tensions between nuclear rivals have soaked from a Attack on a popular tourist site In the cashmere controlled by India, 26 dead civilians, mainly Hindu Indian tourists on April 22. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for having supported the attack, an accusation rejected by Islamabad.
On Wednesday, India carried out air strikes on several sites in the Pakistani territory which it described as linked to activists, kiling 31 civilians according to Pakistani officials. Pakistan said he had killed five Indian hunting planes.
On Thursday, the two countries reported drone attacks that the other quickly denied. These incidents could not be confirmed independently.
India orders X to block thousands of accounts
Meanwhile, the social platform X in a statement said Thursday that the Indian government had ordered it to block users of the country to access more than 8,000 accounts, including a certain number of international press organizations and other leading users. “”
The social platform did not publish the list of accounts it blocked in India, but said that the order “is equivalent to the censorship of the existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right of freedom of expression”. Later, X briefly blocked access to the global affairs account from which she had published the Declaration, also citing a legal request from India.
The crisis disrupts schools, sports and travel
Panic also spread during an evening cricket match in the north of the city of Dharamsala, where a crowd of more than 10,000 people had to be evacuated from the stadium and the canceled game, according to a photographer from Associated Press covering the event.
Meanwhile, several states in the north and west of the Indians, including Punjab, Rajasthan, the cashmere controlled by India, closed schools and other educational establishments for two days.
Airlines in India also suspended the flight operations of two dozen airports in the northern and west regions. The Civil Aviation Ministry of India on Thursday confirmed on Thursday in a statement the temporary closure of 24 airports.
The impact of the border thrust was also observed in the Indian stock markets. Friday, the Benchmark Sensex landed 662 points at 79,649 while Nifty 50 decreased by 215 points to negotiate at 24,058.
Vance says that a war would not be “our business”
While fears of military concentration soar and worried world leaders call for de-escalation, US vice-president JD Vance said that a potential war between India and Pakistan would be “more of our business”.
“What we can do is try to encourage these people to defuse a little, but we are not going to get involved in the middle of the war which is fundamentally not of our business and has nothing to do with the ability of America to control it,” said Vance in an interview with Fox News.
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Saaliq and Roy brought back to New Delhi and Ahmed reported to Islamabad. The writers of the associated press Ishfaq Ahmed and Roshan Mughal contributed to this report in Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan.