Residents of Pakistani Kashmir say they fled into hills during Indian strikes

MUZAFFARABAD (Reuters) – Residents of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, stated they fled their houses and bumped into surrounding hills as India launched airstrikes early on Wednesday in part of town.

Mosque loudspeakers informed folks to hunt shelter as the bottom shook repeatedly and the sounds of explosions reverberated, they stated.

“We got here exterior,” stated Muhammad Shair Mir, 46, describing the occasions of the evening. “Then one other blast occurred. The entire home moved. Everybody acquired scared, all of us evacuated, took our youngsters and went up (the hill).”

Many individuals gathered after dawn close to a mosque that had been hit within the strikes, its roof smashed and minaret toppled. Safety forces had cordoned off the world.

The district commissioner, a senior native official, stated three folks have been killed close to the collapsed mosque. In whole, Pakistan’s navy stated 26 folks have been killed and 46 wounded in Indian assaults throughout Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir.

India launched the strikes early on Wednesday, saying it was concentrating on “terrorist camps” that served as recruitment centres, launchpads, and indoctrination centres, and housed weapons and coaching amenities.

Pakistan referred to as it a “blatant act of conflict” as tensions spiralled between the nuclear-armed rivals after a lethal assault by Islamist gunmen on vacationers in Indian Kashmir. It stated not one of the focused areas have been militant camps.

District officers stated that on the Line of Management that divides Pakistani and Indian Kashmir, mortar and light-weight arms fireplace between the 2 armies continued into the morning and had killed not less than six civilians on the Pakistani aspect.

Police in Indian Kashmir stated not less than 10 folks have been killed and practically 50 injured there.

In Muzaffarbad, hospitals have been operational and a few small companies opened within the morning however colleges have been closed and examinations cancelled, in line with native authorities.

Shair Mir stated he and his household spent 4 hours within the open. A few of his neighbours had gone to hospital with accidents and the remaining have been shaken, he stated.

“That is flawed … poor harmless folks, our poor moms are sick, our sisters are sick .. our homes have been rattled, our partitions have cracked,” he stated.

(Reporting by Tariq Maqbool, Akhtar Soomro and Reuters TV in Muzafarrabad; writing by Charlotte Greenfield; Modifying by Raju Gopalakrishnan)