Clashes along Pakistan-India border kill nine

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- At least nine civilians were killed Friday as India and Pakistan conducted gunfire and mortar shelling of villages on either side of their contrasted border.

Villages near Sialkot, Pakistan, and in Jammu and Kashmir states in India were struck in ongoing fighting. Six Pakistanis and three Indians died, officials on both sides reported; no military personnel were injured. Each side accused the other of instigating the clashes.

Access to the area in question is restricted by Pakistan, so confirmation of the events are difficult to ascertain; the reported number of Pakistani casualties, though, is higher than any reported from the border in the past year. A ceasefire was declared in 2003, but outbursts of violence occur regularly. Talks between high-level officials of the two countries, to address the border situation, were planned for next week and canceled abruptly.

It is unlikely the violence will escalate the tenuous peace between the two rivals, but Western analysts note each country has nuclear warheads, and Pakistan has begun increasing its nuclear arsenal.