India and Pakistan are exchanging heavy artillery fire for a second straight day along the Line of Control that divides India- and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Pakistan’s military says Indian airstrikes and shells have killed 31 people and injured 57 others on its side of the Kashmiri border and in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Among the dead were three people killed when India bombed a mosque in the Kashmiri city of Muzaffarabad. The principal of a nearby school said the attack sparked fear among students.
Saima Masood: “There has been significant damage here, as you can see. The school was also badly hit. The mosque is in a terrible state, and the mosque’s caretaker was martyred. The children are in fear. The school’s condition is such that the ceiling has collapsed, the windows are shattered, and the doors and furniture have all been badly damaged.”
Meanwhile, India says Pakistani artillery fire has killed at least 13 civilians, including five children. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif promised to retaliate against India in a national address Wednesday, saying, “We will avenge the blood of our innocent martyrs.”