Nine civilians were killed on Friday when guards on the border between India and Pakistan traded gunfire, according to SFGate. Another 63 people were wounded in the short-lived clash, which occurred around Kanganpur, Pakistan in the Kashmir region.
The cause of the conflict is unknown. Each side is currently blaming the other for firing and shelling without provocation. Homes were hit with shells around midnight, when the fighting broke out. The Pakistani army said that their villages of Kanganpur and Bajra were hit the hardest in the clash. They reported six civilians killed and 47 others wounded. An official at the Indian border says that three Indian civilians were killed and 16 were wounded. No military personnel on either side were injured in Friday's clash, according to UPI. Buildings on both sides suffered damage.
The border between the two countries has been protected by a cease-fire agreement since 2003, but skirmishes like this are common in spite of this agreement. Nine civilians were killed in one such clash as recently as early August. Tensions are currently high between India and Pakistan because talks between the two countries were recently stopped, largely due to disagreements about the Kashmir region where Friday's fighting took place, according to The Huffington Post.
