(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Only days after a rare meeting between India and Pakistan's prime ministers, the two countries have exchanged fire across part of the de-facto border in Indian-held Kashmir.
"A 42-year-old woman was killed in the firing from the Pakistani side, and a Border Security Force soldier and five other people have been injured so far on our side," a senior police official told Anadolu Agency.
Indian authorities claimed a Pakistani sniper started the firing on Wednesday morning. Indian police said the clash intensified quickly with both sides beginning mortar shelling.
According to the Border Security Force (BSF), this was the seventh ceasefire violation between the two countries so far this month. Earlier on July 9, an Indian BSF soldier was killed in northern Indian-held Kashmir in cross-border firing.
The fresh ceasefire violation has come after Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi met on the sidelines of a summit in Russia, later giving a joint statement deploring terrorism and vowing to support each oter in their fight against it.
In the last four days the Indian Army claimed to have killed two militants and foiled two attempts of infiltration from the Pakistani side of the Line of Control, which separates the divided Kashmir.
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 Kashmiris have been killed so far in the violence, most of them by Indian forces. India maintains over half a million soldiers in the Indian-held Kashmir.
A part of Kashmir is also held by China.
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