India attack kills six Pakistanis in Kashmir

Pakistan says Indian forces have pounded Pakistani border villages, killing at least six people and injuring 26 more.

Women and children were among the victims of the attacks, Pakistani army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said in what he described in a statement on Friday as “unprovoked” Indian shelling across the boundary on the Pakistani villages of Charwah and Harpal.

Initially, the army had announced that four civilians had died in the Indian shelling in Kashmir.

The Pakistani prime minister on Thursday accused New Delhi’s military of having committed 600 ceasefire violations with small-arms fire, shelling, and mortar attacks since January 2017.

In a speech to world leaders at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi called on the international community to start an international investigation into “India’s crimes in Kashmir.”

He urged the UN to appoint a special envoy to Kashmir to investigate violations, and said India was “brutally suppressing” the struggle of the people in Kashmir for autonomy and independence.

Abbasi said that Pakistan had acted with restraint until then but that if India continued the attacks across the Line of Control (LoC), “it will evoke a strong and matching response.”

SS