A Pakistani woman and two boys were killed and two people injured when Indian forces fired over the line of control that divides the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, police said today.
Pakistani police accused Indian troops of shelling the village of Lubgran in Leepa Valley, 60 km (37 miles) from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, last night, police said.
Those killed were a 40-year-old woman, her son and another boy of 16, officials said. The two injured were in hospital, they said.
It was the highest number killed in one day since the recent escalation of violance along the line of control between India and Pakistan that began this month after a 10-month lull.
Police said Indian soldiers had continued to fire intermittently across the line. They did not say if Pakistani soldiers had returned fire.
More than 200 people, mostly rebels, have been killed in an upsurge of separatist violence in the region since the US-led strikes on Afghanistan's ruling Taliban began on October 7, India says.
At least a dozen militant groups are fighting India's rule in Kashmir. Officials say about 30,000 people have been killed in nearly 12 years of conflict. Separatists put the toll closer to 80,000.
India reiterated on Tuesday its stand that the only way to resolve the Kashmir issue is through bilateral talks with Pakistan, and said it would accept no third-party intervention. India accuses Pakistan of sponsoring Islamic rebels in Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state. Pakistan says it gives only moral support to the freedom struggle there.