India-Pakistan border violence may be worsening

Violence on the disputed India-Pakistan border may be getting worse, even after decades of standoff.

Pakistan's military said on Wednesday (July 22) that incidents such as shelling and small arms fire from India has seen an uptick across the so-called Line of Control - the informal border between Pakistan and India-controlled Kashmir.

The two nuclear-armed neighbors recently ejected half of each other's diplomats.

Malik Mohammad Ayub Awan is the deputy commissioner for a district near the LoC - which encompasses around 200,000 people.

"Every other day, our neighboring country India, which is our enemy, instead of at the army, fires directly at our civil population, which is badly affecting the civilians. Their properties are being damaged; they are being killed. It is four months since I took over as deputy commissioner here, and during this period, six people have been martyred by Indian firing in my district; and around 13 have been injured."

For reference, Pakistan says it has seen almost 1,800 incidents so far this year, and that it's on track to surpass the number of incidents for the whole of 2019.

2019 was the worst in a decade. India rejects that, and says Pakistan was responsible for 2,500 incidents this year.

Regardless of the numbers, locals say it makes it hard to live their day-to-day lives.

And that they can't attend wedding parties, funerals, or even go to the mosque - let alone do basic agricultural activities.

"Right now, my sister-in-law is lying at home, paralyzed. A shell fell on our house and fell through the roof. She was hit by the shell, and was paralyzed from the waist down. There is no movement in her body. A child was also injured, along with his mother."

The Muslim-majority Himalayan region has been at the heart of more than 70 years of animosity, since the partition of British-ruled India into Muslim Pakistan and majority Hindu India in 1947.

Two of the three wars they have fought since have been over Kashmir.