Nine killed in Indian firing on POK bus

At least nine people were killed and seven others wounded in cross-border fire which hit a Pakistani bus in disputed Kashmir yesterday, officials said, the latest deadly skirmish between India and Pakistan.

The incident came a day after India said three of its soldiers had been killed by Pakistani troops and threatened "retribution", a claim that was angrily rejected by Pakistan.

The violence took place in Nagdar village in Pakistani-held Kashmir's scenic Neelum Valley.

Local administration official Sardar Waheed said firing was continuing, preventing ambulances from reaching the scene.

Pakistan's prime minister condemned the firing.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said it also summoned the Indian Deputy High Commissioner, JP Singh, to its foreign ministry to protest the "targeting a civilian bus and an ambulance which was rescuing the affectees of the attack on the bus" and declared it a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.

On Tuesday the Indian army accused Pakistan of sending soldiers across the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides Kashmir, and killing three of its soldiers, saying one of the bodies had been mutilated.

But Pakistan angrily rejected the claim in a series of tweets from a foreign ministry spokesman late Tuesday, calling it "baseless" and a "fabrication".