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The two nations both lay claim to the heavily disputed Kashmir area on the Indian-Pakistan border

Cross-border shell-fire resumed today after last night's reports Pakistani ceasefire violations in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, along the border which separates the two territories. The Zee TV website reported the “unprovoked violation” took place in the Mankot area of the district, which saw Pakistani troops attack Indian soldiers with heavy fire and mortar shelling. The hotly disputed area has been identified by military experts as a potential trigger point for World War 3.


A Twitter post at 2.24pm BST read: "Ceasefire violation # PakistanArmy. # India retaliates with heavy fire! 1 enemy post destroyed 4-7 killed and several injured # Pakistan aslo reporting about loss of 2 armored Vehicles hit by # IndianArmy shells in retaliation." It is the second attack on Indian troops in the area to have taken place in the last 24 hours. On Friday, Pakistan shelled villages along the Line of Control, the border that separates the two warring nations’ controlled parts of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The break in ceasefire took place in Krishna Ghati sector, also situated in Poonch district at around 7.30am. And shelling resumed at around 9am today when Pakistani forces attacked targets along the Line of Control in Rajouri district with mortar and small arms fire.

Indian Defence Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Devender Anand said in a statement: "Around 7.30 am, Pakistan initiated the attack violating the ceasefire agreement. "There was unprovoked attack launched by the Pakistani soldiers in Mankote and Krishna Ghati sectors." The Indian Army retaliated effectively, he added. A total of seven people, including three soldiers, have been killed in the district of Poonch since India carried out an air strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot area on February 26. Last Sunday, India was on high alert as it reportedly spotted a Pakistani drone along the Line of Control, amid heightened tensions between the warring nations over the Kashmir region.


It is the latest in a string of reports of Pakistani drones entering Indian airspace. According to The Times of India, there have been more than 12 incidents with at least four of the machines being shot down. Last week, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said he fears India has been gripped by ”war hysteria” that threatens to unleash further hostilities in the run-up to its neighbour’s national elections. In the wake of the most serious conflict between the two countries in decades, Mr Khan told the Financial Times: “I’m still apprehensive before the elections, I feel that something could happen.” The former cricket captain insisted Pakistan did not have any links to Daish-E-Mohammad, the terror group that launched a deadly attack on an Indian Parliamentary police convoy in the Kasmir region last month.

Imran Khan said he feared India had been gripped by 'war hysteria'

Instead, he cast Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the aggressor for launching a subsequent missile strike that brought the two countries closer to war. Although he denied responsibility, Mr Khan said there is no place for terrorists in his “new Pakistan”. He said: “We’re already cracking down on them, we’re already dismantling the whole set up. “What is happening right now has never happened before in Pakistan.” Pakistan and India came dangerously close to a full-loan war following the suicide bombing that killed more than 40 Indian Parliamentary police on February 14.