India-Pakistan conflict escalates in Kashmir, 4 killed in cross-border shelling

A cross-border exchange of fire in the disputed region of Kashmir killed a soldier and three civilians, Pakistan and India said Monday, trading accusations over the latest shooting incident, as tensions soar between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Pakistan's military said an 18-month-old girl and another civilian were killed on its side of the border in "unprovoked firing" by the Indian army. "Due to Indian unprovoked firing last night a civilian, Muhammad Latif of village Janglora, and a minor Haniya, age one and a half, embraced shahadat (martyrdom) while seven civilians were injured," a military statement said.

The firing took place across the border between Indian-held Kashmir and Pakistan's Punjab province in the villages of Harpal, Pukhlian and Charwah, the statement said. Indian police said the heavy exchange of firing occurred in its Pura sector early on Monday morning, killing an Indian border security guard and a six-year-old boy.

The overnight incident comes days after Indian border security forces said they shot dead seven Pakistani soldiers in retaliation for a ceasefire violation, with Pakistan refuting the claims.

Tensions between Pakistan and India have escalated once more recently in late September over the Indian occupied Kashmir. Relations between the two countries have plummeted in recent months, with India blaming Pakistani militants for a raid on an army base in its part of disputed Kashmir in September that killed 19 soldiers. India later said it launched "surgical strikes" across the border in Pakistan on militant targets, prompting fury from Pakistan which denied the raids took place.

After the latest exchange, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urged the international community to take note of the "grave human rights violations" in Kashmir. A statement from Sharif's office said he discussed Kashmir with U.K. National Security Adviser Mark Lyall Grant who called him on Monday. In a bid to highlight the human violation in the Kashmir region, Pakistani PM Sharif had nominated 22 parliamentarians as special envoys to be dispatched to world capitals.

Indian and Pakistani troops regularly exchange fire across their de-facto border in Kashmir, but rarely send ground troops over the line. Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan, but claimed in full by both, since the two countries gained independence from Britain in 1947. Since 1989, Kashmiris have been fighting Indian forces deployed in the region, seeking independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan.

Since the dispute of Kashmir, one of the oldest disputes on the agenda of the UN Security Council along with that of Palestine erupted in 1947 between India and Pakistan, more than 94,000 Kashmiris have been killed during clashes, according to Pakistani officials' reports.