Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged heavy volleys of shells and gunfire across their frontier in Kashmir overnight, killing at least five civilians in a growing military standoff that erupted following an attack on tourists in the India-controlled portion of the disputed region.
In Pakistan, an unusually intense night of artillery exchanges left at least four civilians dead and wounded 12 others in areas near the Line of Control that divides Kashmir, local police official Adeel Ahmad said. People in border towns said the firing continued well into Friday morning.
“We’re used to hearing exchange of fire between Pakistan and India at the Line of Control, but last night was different,” said Mohammad Shakil, who lives near the frontier in Chakothi sector.
In India, military officials said Pakistani troops barraged their posts overnight with artillery, mortars and gunfire at multiple locations in Indian-controlled Kashmir. They said Indian soldiers responded, triggering fierce exchanges until early dawn.
A woman was killed and two other civilians were injured in Uri sector, police said, taking the civilian death toll in Indian-controlled Kashmir to 17 since Wednesday. Pakistan has said Indian mortar and artillery fire has killed 17 civilians in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the same period.
Indian authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of civilians from villages near the volatile frontier. Thousands of people slept in shelters for a second consecutive night.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals have soared since an attack on a popular tourist site in India-controlled Kashmir left 26 civilians dead, mostly Hindu Indian tourists, on April 22. New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for backing the attack, an accusation Islamabad rejects.
Front Burner22:53Dozens dead as India and Pakistan clash
Air travel, schooling impacted
In a sign of how tense the situation has become, India’s biggest domestic cricket tournament was suspended for one week on Friday.
The Indian Premier League, which features top players from around the world and attracts hundreds of millions of TV viewers, was halted with immediate effect, the Board of Control for Cricket in India said, with rescheduled dates and venues to “be announced in due course after a comprehensive assessment of the situation in consultation with relevant authorities and stakeholders.”
The IPL is the most popular cricket tournament in the world and runs between March and May. The 10-team competition still has 12 games to be played in the group stage before the knockout rounds.
The final had been scheduled for May 25 in Kolkata.
Pakistan earlier said it was moving its own domestic T20 tournament to the United Arab Emirates because of the tensions.
Several northern and western Indian states, including Punjab, Rajasthan and Indian-controlled Kashmir, have shut schools and other educational institutions for two days.
Fears are mounting of an all-out war between India and Pakistan after India fired missiles into Pakistan-controlled territory, killing dozens of people. Andrew Chang breaks down the escalation of this longstanding conflict, which was reignited by last month’s deadly attack in the contested region of Kashmir, and the concerns experts are raising about the risks of further violence.
Airlines in India have also suspended flight operations from two dozen airports across northern and western regions. India’s Civil Aviation Ministry late Thursday confirmed in a statement the temporary closure of 24 airports.
On Wednesday, India conducted airstrikes on several sites in Pakistani territory it described as militant-related, killing 31 civilians according to Pakistani officials. Pakistan said it shot down five Indian fighter jets. On Thursday, India said it thwarted Pakistani drone and missile attacks at military targets in more than a dozen cities and towns, including Jammu city in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Pakistan denied that it carried out drone attacks in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India said meanwhile it hit Pakistan’s air defence systems and radars close to the city of Lahore. The incidents could not be independently confirmed.
X reluctantly suspends accounts on order
While the U.S. has been among a number of countries urging the two countries to exercise restraint, Vice-President JD Vance has said that a potential war between India and Pakistan would be “none of our business.”
“What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit, but we’re not going to get involved in the middle of war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it,” Vance said in an interview with Fox News.
Meanwhile, social platform X in a statement on Thursday said the Indian government had ordered it to block users in the country from accessing more than 8,000 accounts, including a number of “international news organizations and other prominent users.”
The social platform did not release the list of accounts it was blocking in India, but said the order “amounts to censorship of existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right of free speech.”
Later, X briefly blocked access to the Global Affairs Account from which it had posted the statement, also citing a legal demand from India.
