Pakistan will not tolerate civilian deaths in Kashmir, prime minister says

ISAMABAD , Pakistan, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Pakistan will not tolerate India's shelling of civilians across the Line of Control separating Pakistani- and Indian-controlled Kashmir, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Thursday.

He spoke at a high-level meeting of defense leaders, the day after conflict resumed on the Line of Control. Artillery shells fired from the Indian side killed 10 civilians and three Pakistani soldiers on Wednesday. Nine people died and 11 were injured when a shell struck a passenger bus. These and other border incidents, including an attack on an ambulance reported by Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations office, pushed the casualty toll higher.

The meeting urged other countries to notice what Pakistan regards as a tense situation deliberately escalated by India.

"Pakistan has exercised maximum restraint despite the continuing ceasefire violations from the Indian security forces along LoC; however, we cannot tolerate deliberate targeting of innocent civilians particularly children and women, the ambulances and the civilian transport," Sharif said at the meeting, according to a statement from his office.

The statement further accused India of "deliberately trying to divert the attention of the international community from the grave human rights violations, massacres and atrocities being committed by the Indian security forces against the innocent and defenseless Kashmiris in the Indian-occupied [states of] Jammu and Kashmir."