India pounds AJK villages, loses nine troops in reprisal.

MUZAFFARABAD -- Six civilians and a soldier of the Pakistan Army embraced martyrdom while two soldiers and at least nine civilians were wounded in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) after Indian troops resorted to 'indiscriminate and ruthless' shelling from across the Line of Control (LoC) past midnight 'without any provocation', civil and military officials said on Sunday. In a befitting response, Pakistan Army effectively targeted Indian positions across the dividing line, destroying two Indian bunkers, killing nine Indian soldiers and injuring several other troops, according to Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, director general of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media affairs wing of Pakistan army. The ISPR chief identified the martyred soldier as Lance Naik Zahid.

The civilian and military officials said the Nauseri sector, in Muzaffarabad district, and its adjoining Jura and Shahkot sectors, in Neelum valley, were attacked by Indian troops without pause from midnight onwards, using field artillery, mortars and tracer munition to brazenly target civilians. Prime Minister Imran Khan strongly condemned the unprovoked firing by the Indian occupation forces. He prayed for eternal peace of those martyred and early recovery of the injured, a PM Office statement said. Mr Khan also saluted the valour of the Pakistan Army for giving a befitting response to the Indian forces. Giving details of the casualties, Deputy Commissioner Badar Munir told Dawn that three persons lost their lives and two were injured after a shell hit their house in Nauseri sector's Nos adda village. He identified the deceased as Haji Azam,

60, his son Mohammad Rafaqat, 28, and Haji Sarfraz, 47, son of Ghulam Rabbani. Elsewhere in the Nauseri sector, two labourers -...