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India-Pakistan border shooting 'kills nine'

Srinagar (India) (AFP) - Indian and Pakistan security forces traded fire along their troubled frontier, leaving nine civilians dead on both sides and stoking tensions during the festival of Eid, officials said Monday.

Officials in both countries said the civilian death tally from the cross-border firing was one of the highest in a single day in recent years in the flashpoint region.

The two countries accused each other of provoking the firing, which fanned tensions between the nuclear-armed nations that have fought three wars, two over scenic Muslim-majority Kashmir.

On the Indian side, officials said they were shifting thousands of border residents to safer areas after mortar shells from Pakistani paramilitary troops killed five villagers and injured at least 30.

"Let everybody be assured our armed forces and paramilitary forces are fully ready," Indian Defence Minister Arun Jaitley told NDTV news channel.

A Pakistani military statement said four civilians, including two children "embraced shahadat (martyrdom) due to unprovoked firing by the Indian BSF (Border Security Force)" near Sialkot on the international boundary between Pakistan's Punjab province and India's Jammu and Kashmir state.

Islamabad had lodged a "strong protest" with New Delhi about the incident, Pakistan's foreign ministry said.

Pakistan said there was also firing around four places along the Line of Control, the de-facto border separating Pakistan and Indian Kashmir, resulting in cancellation of some Eid al-Adha prayers but no casualties.

The casualties in Indian Kashmir occurred when shells landed near a bus stand and houses in the Arnia sector of the southern Jammu region, police director general K. Rajendra told AFP.

- Moving to 'safer areas' -

The firing caused panic on the Indian side, police said, and some villagers were being evacuated to bunkers.

"We've made arrangements for 10,000 people (to move) and we're also making announcements informing people living along the border to move to safer areas," Rajesh Kumar, inspector-general of police in the Jammu region, told AFP.

Kumar said the situation was quiet along the international border but there was intermittent firing along the LoC in the Poonch sector.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan but both lay claim to the vast scenic Himalayan region.

The rivalry has created of the world's tensest regions with an estimated 500,000 Indian troops deployed in Indian Kashmir.

India called off peace talks last month over Kashmir after Pakistan consulted with Indian Kashmiri separatists.

Recently elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government is seen as more hawkish than its Congress predecessor, told the UN General Assembly late last month he is willing to hold talks as long as there is "an atmosphere of peace".

- 'Massive firing' -

India and Pakistan often accuse each other of violating the 2003 ceasefire agreement. But villagers in Indian Kashmir said the latest firing was particularly heavy.

"I've never seen such massive firing. Bombs were falling on houses," Vijay Kumar, one injured villager, told India's NDTV news.

Since 1989, fighting between Indian forces and rebels seeking independence or merger of the territory with Pakistan has killed tens of thousands, mostly civilians.

Violence has fallen in the region since 2004 when the countries began a peace process, but there are sporadic rebel attacks on Indian forces while Indian Kashmiris often allege rights abuses.

In other violence Monday, Indian troops killed three suspected rebels trying to cross the LoC from Pakistan Kashmir, defence spokesman N.N. Joshi told AFP, calling it "an attempt to infiltrate".

Eid festivities were muted in Kashmir, devastated last month by heavy monsoon rains and floods which killed more than 450 people in the region and caused billions of dollars in damage to homes, businesses and livelihoods.

"I hope the next Eid will be like it used to be" with celebrations, Javed Ahmed, a trader whose business still is in ruins, told AFP in Srinagar.