Ten people, including two minor girls, were injured in heavy shelling by Indian troops in Azad Jammu and Kashmir's Nakyal sector on Sunday, an official said.

"Indian troops started heavy mortar shelling at about 7am in the morning, targeting civilian populations in almost all villages along the Line of Control (LoC)," said Nakyal Assistant Commissioner Waleed Anwar.

According to the assistant commissioner the shelling finally ceased at noon.

A shell exploded on the roof of the house of one Haji Aslam in Palani village, critically injuring three of his daughters, he said. The victims were identified as Musarrat, 22, Nargis, 25, and Samra, 15.

Elsewhere, in the same sector, 11-year-old Aleeba Majeed and 35-year-old Muhammad Zahoor Mughal were injured in Jair Merg and Dharoti Naari villages respectively, Anwar said.

He added that at least three people were reported injured in Balakot. They were identified as 18-year-old Abdul Aziz, Abdul Ghani, 52, and his spouse Farzand Begum, 42.

Separately, a 50-year-old woman, Shamim Akhtar, was injured in Naar Dabsi village, Anwar informed.

He said six of the victims had been shifted to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Kotli owing to their critical wounds.

In another incident, Chaudhry Sher Muhammad, 79, was injured in village Androt. He was however relieved after medical treatment, said Anwar.

Five killed in India-held Kashmir

Five members of a single family were killed when a mortar bomb fired allegedly from the Pakistani side landed on their home in India-held Kashmir, Indian police said.

The incident happened in the southern Poonch sector in the disputed Himalayan region.

Police said a 35-year-old man, two children aged seven and 12, a teenage boy and a woman were killed.

“The five were killed inside their home when a shell fired from Pakistan side of the border hit it,” director general of police, Shesh Paul Vaid, told AFP.

Two girls, including a five-year-old, were injured and taken to hospital, a police statement said.

The heavily militarised LoC has been witnessing intermittent heavy shelling for a long time now, in a serious breach of a November 2003 truce agreement between the Indian and Pakistani armies. Scores of civilians have been killed and injured as a result.

Two locals in AJK's Poonch district were injured in a recent incident of cross-border firing. Three members of a visiting United Nations Military Observers Mission for India and Pakistan, who had arrived to inspect the situation along the LoC, barely escaped with their lives.