Deadly clashes erupted between Afghan border guards and Pakistani soldiers escorting census takers in a remote border village. Locals claim that several homes were destroyed in cross-border shelling.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Habibi
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Both Afghanistan and Pakistan accuse each other of starting a gun battle near the border town of Chaman early on Friday. Locals in the area said Pakistani and Afghan troops guns and artillery shells.
"So far, we have received nine bodies. These civilians were killed as a result of the Afghan shelling," said Akhtar Mohammad, a doctor at the state-run hospital in Chaman.
Dozens more people on both sides were reported injured, some of them in critical conditions. Several Afghan border guards were also wounded. Some of the injured said their homes were destroyed in the shelling.
India-Pakistan rivalry: Kashmiris pay a high price
India and Pakistan continue to clash over Kashmir, a volatile Himalayan region that has been experiencing an armed insurgency for nearly three decades. Many Kashmiris are now fed up with both Islamabad and New Delhi.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Mustafa
An unprecedented danger?
On February 27, Pakistan's military said that it had shot down two Indian fighter jets over disputed Kashmir. A Pakistani military spokesman said the jets were shot down after they'd entered Pakistani airspace. It is the first time in history that two nuclear-armed powers have conducted air strikes against each other.
Image: Reuters/D. Ismail
India drops bombs inside Pakistan
The Pakistani military has released this image to show that Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistani territory for the first time since the countries went to war in 1971. India said the air strike was in response to a recent suicide attack on Indian troops based in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan said there were no casualties and that its airforce repelled India's aircraft.
Image: AFP/ISPR
No military solution
Some Indian civil society members believe New Delhi cannot exonerate itself from responsibility by accusing Islamabad of creating unrest in the Kashmir valley. A number of rights organizations demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government reduce the number of troops in Kashmir and let the people decide their fate.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Mustafa
No end to the violence
On February 14, at least 41 Indian paramilitary police were killed in a suicide bombing near the capital of India-administered Kashmir. The Pakistan-based Jihadi group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, claimed responsibility. The attack, the worst on Indian troops since the insurgency in Kashmir began in 1989, spiked tensions and triggered fears of an armed confrontation between the two nuclear-armed powers.
Image: IANS
A bitter conflict
Since 1989, Muslim insurgents have been fighting Indian forces in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir - a region of 12 million people, about 70 percent of whom are Muslim. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.
India strikes down a militant rebellion
In October 2016, the Indian military has launched an offensive against armed rebels in Kashmir, surrounding at least 20 villages in Shopian district. New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing the militants, who cross over the Pakistani-Indian "Line of Control" and launch attacks on India's paramilitary forces.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/C. Anand
Death of a Kashmiri separatist
The security situation in the Indian part of Kashmir deteriorated after the killing of Burhan Wani, a young separatist leader, in July 2016. Protests against Indian rule and clashes between separatists and soldiers have claimed hundreds of lives since then.
Image: Reuters/D. Ismail
The Uri attack
In September 2016, Islamist militants killed at least 17 Indian soldiers and wounded 30 in India-administered Kashmir. The Indian army said the rebels had infiltrated the Indian part of Kashmir from Pakistan, with initial investigations suggesting that the militants belonged to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group, which has been active in Kashmir for over a decade.
Image: UNI
Rights violations
Indian authorities banned a number of social media websites in Kashmir after video clips showing troops committing grave human rights violations went viral on the Internet. One such video that showed a Kashmiri protester tied to an Indian army jeep — apparently as a human shield — generated outrage on social media.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/
Demilitarization of Kashmir
Those in favor of an independent Kashmir want Pakistan and India to step aside and let the Kashmiri people decide their future. "It is time India and Pakistan announce the timetable for withdrawal of their forces from the portions they control and hold an internationally supervised referendum," Toqeer Gilani, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in Pakistani Kashmir, told DW.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Singh
No chance for secession
But most Kashmir observers don't see it happening in the near future. They say that while the Indian strategy to deal strictly with militants and separatists in Kashmir has partly worked out, sooner or later New Delhi will have to find a political solution to the crisis. Secession, they say, does not stand a chance.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Mustafa
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Pakistani troops were accompanying census workers in the border area when the fighting started. Afghan police spokesman Zia Durani accused Islamabad of using the census as cover for "malicious activities and to provoke villagers against the government."
Durani also claimed Pakistani "militias" were trying to cross the border.
"They did not heed the warning, and we have clear orders to engage them," the spokesman from the Afghan state of Kandahar said.
In turn, the Pakistani military said Afghanistan border guards were creating "hurdles" for census taking "despite the fact that Afghan authorities had been informed well in advance" of the process. The army closed the Chaman border crossing after the exchange of fire, which is one of the two main transfer points on the border.
Every third Afghan child is not in school
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The two countries are separated by a porous 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) demarcation line originally drawn up by the British in the late 19th century. Kabul has never formally recognized the process.
While various tribes live on both sides of the borders and many locals cross the border daily with impunity, both governments have recently been attempting to control the movement in the area. Earlier this year, Pakistan closed down the border for over a month after a suicide bomber killed nearly 90 people at a Sufi Islam shrine.