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Srinagar: Five persons, including a girl, were killed and eight others injured as Pakistani troops shelled forward positions and villages along the line of control (LoC) in North Kashmir, official sources said on June 5.

The shelling from across the border was intense since June 4 and the casualties were reported from Karnah and Uri sectors of twin districts of Kupwara and Baramulla on June 4, they said.

The sources said Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked artillery and mortar shelling killing four persons at Tangdhar in Karnah and a girl at Kamalkote village of Uri.

Seven civilians were also injured in the shelling in Karnah and another at Kamalkote where two houses were also damaged, they said.

The injured have been shifted to hospital and their condition was stated to be serious, they added.

The sources said Indian troops also retaliated, but the casualties suffered by them were not known immediately.

Shelling from both sides was continuing when reports last came in on June 5, they said, adding the sudden esclation in the cross-border shelling caused panic among the inhabitants, most of whom shifted to safer places in their villages to escape Pakistani guns.

This is for the first time in this year that Pakistani troops shelled the forward villages so heavily, they said.

They said the shelling was carried out apparently to push armed militants into the valley as Army foiled four infiltration bids in May, killing about 20 militants in Kupwara sector.

Troops have been asked to intensify vigil all along the border to foil any attempt of militants to sneak into the valley, the sources said.

The civilians killed in Pakistani shelling have been identified as truck driver Abdul Hamid, his assistant Arif Ahmad Lone, both residents of Jalpari (Baramulla), Ghulam Nabi Joo of Hanjinar-Karnah, Sajjad Ahmad of Wuyan-Pampore (Pulwama District) and a teenaged girl Kuki daughter of Abdul Karim, they added.

PTI