Seven People killed in the India -Pakistan border

Tensions between India and Pakistan raged on Saturday as heavy firing by their armies killed at least seven people on either side of their fiercely disputed Kashmir border.

The nuclear-armed rivals fired mortars and artillery at each other despite the release of an Indian pilot who had been shot down by Pakistan but then sent back as a “goodwill gesture”.

In a fearsome 24 hour spell, two soldiers and two civilians died on the Pakistan side, its military said. On the Indian side, a woman and her two children died after their house was pulverised by a mortar shell.

Indian army chief Bipin Rawat dashed to Udhampur in his country’s sector of Kashmir on Saturday to review border security. There was no let-up in war rhetoric with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying no-one could “dare threaten” a “new, fearless and decisive” India.

Modi also told an India Today media group conference the country needed the Rafale fighter jets it wants to buy from France. The deal has been embroiled in corruption allegations levelled by the opposition Congress party.