New escalation .. Civilian and military dead by mutual bombardment between India and Pakistan

At least seven people - including two soldiers - were killed in a heavy exchange of fire between Pakistani and Indian border guards in disputed Kashmir, the military said on Saturday.

Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that the mutual artillery shelling between the armies of India and Pakistan on both sides of the truce line lasted a few hours last night, after the return of Islamabad, the Indian pilot, who was taken to New Delhi.

A statement issued by the Public Relations Service of the Interior - the military wing of the army - that the Indian forces fired along the line of control, a virtual border separating the section under the Indian administration and another controlled by Pakistan from Kashmir, and added that "India deliberately targeted the civilian population "He said.

On the other hand, the Indian authorities in the Indian part of Kashmir, said the Pakistani bombing killed three civilians.

A police official said a woman and her two children were killed in the Poonch area of ​​Indian Kashmir, during night bombardment by Pakistani forces along the line of control, while the father was seriously injured.

The mutual artillery bombardments between the armies of India and Pakistan - which in recent days focused on the Kashmir front - have caused double suffering to the local population, especially those whose homes are near the line of the armistice between the two parts of Kashmir. Hundreds of them have been displaced. Others.

The escalation has alarmed world powers including China and the United States, which urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint to avert another conflict between the two neighbors, who have fought three wars since independence from Britain.

Tension between the two countries rose quickly after a car bomb on February 14 killed at least 40 Indian security forces in India-controlled Kashmir.

India has accused Pakistan of providing sanctuary to the Jaish-e-Mohammad group behind the attack, which Pakistan denied, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Moody vowed a strong response.

The latest developments come hours after Pakistan handed over the Indian pilot who was captured to his country, where the extradition took place in a border area in Lahore, Punjab province.

The Indian pilot was captured last Wednesday after his plane was shot down in Pakistani Kashmir during an attack on a militant camp in response to Indian attack in Indian Kashmir last month.

Since independence from Britain in 1947, both India and Pakistan claim their right in the Kashmir region, and each state controls part of the territory, and the two countries had previously fought two wars in the context of the conflict between them on the territory.