Tensions between historic nuclear-armed enemies Indian and Pakistan are soaring, with Western officials closely watching amid fears they are barreling toward a new war along the border. The United Nations is desperately urging ‘maximum restraint’.
Indian officials have confirmed Friday that Indian and Pakistani soldiers briefly exchanged fire along their highly militarized frontier in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, according to The Associated Press.
Small arms were used by both sides in the gunfight, and no casualties have as of yet been reported, a briefing by an Indian official indicated, in the first such live-fire incident since 2021. It also violates a pledge from the same year for the two nations to observe a ceasefire along the disputed Line of Control between Indian and Pakistani controlled areas of Kashmir.
Widely circulating videos suggest that India has been rushing troops and military equipment to the border in readiness for potential escalation or any scenario.
No details have been issued as to the precise location of the new exchange of gunfire:
Indian army sources told Al Jazeera on Friday that the Pakistani side initiated the shooting. A government official in Pakistan-administered Kashmir also confirmed to the AFP news agency on Friday that troops exchanged fire, but did not say who started the exchange.
“There was no firing on the civilian population,” Syed Ashfaq Gilani, the Pakistani official, told AFP.
A war of words and accusations have broken out between Pakistani and Indian officials after India on Tuesday suffered one of its worst terror attacks in recent years. Islamist gunmen conducted mass killings in a picturesque and tourist-poplar spot in the disputed and Indian-administered region of Kashmir.
