By Shazia Yousuf
SRINAGAR, INDIAN HELD KASHMIR
A soldier of the Indian Border Security Force has been killed on Monday in a fresh cease-fire violation along the Working Boundary between Indian and Pakistani forces in Samba and Kathua areas of Indian-held Kashmir.
The border has been reeling from heavy fire over the past week causing several deaths on both sides, leading to the evacuation of thousands of civilians living along the border.
The tension between the two nuclear neighbors has deteriorated since August 2014 after India called off diplomatic talks with Pakistan.
According to sources in the Indian Border Security Force, firing at the border on Monday was started by Pakistani Rangers, following a day of tense silence on Sunday.
“After a lull in the firing on Sunday, the Pakistanis violated the cease-fire again on Monday by targeting our border outposts with heavy firing from mortar and automatic weapons. One of our soldiers was killed in the firing and we have retaliated accordingly by hitting back at them," a spokesperson of the Indian security forces told The Anadolu Agency.
Both India and Pakistan have been blaming each other for violating the cease-fire and in the absence of diplomatic talks.
While the Indian Home Minister recently said that they would raise the costs for Pakistan, Khawaja Asif, the Pakistani defense minister, told the press that India wanted to keep Pakistan busy in a “low-intensity” war and that Islamabad “would speak to India in the language they understand.”
Since October 6, 2014, more than 23 civilians have been killed on both sides of the Kashmiri border while more than 100 have been wounded. Thousands have fled their villages leaving behind their homes, cattle and possessions to safe shelters set up by the local district administration.
The border in Kathua and Samba flared up in the present spell of violence on New Year's Eve with Indian and Pakistani forces using heavy mortar fire against each other, killing two soldiers from both sides respectively.
On Friday, a 45-year-old woman was killed and 13 others were injured in the Samba region on the Indian side while a 13-year-old Pakistani girl was also killed.
Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full.
The two countries have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965 and 1971 – since they were partitioned in 1947, two of which were fought over Kashmir.
Since 1989, Kashmiri resistance groups in Indian-held Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule, for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
More than 70,000 people have reportedly been killed in the conflict so far.
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