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New Delhi.- At least 80 people have died in India and Pakistan since the attack on April 22 against a group of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, amid a military escalation that continues to claim victims, mainly on the border of this region.
A large part of the victims are concentrated around the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border that divides the Kashmir region and which is a common scene of clashes, aggravated since the massacre against tourists, according to a report prepared by EFE citing official sources from both countries.
Read more: Tension in Kashmir: India attacked Pakistan
While another important part was a consequence of an air strike on May 7th, led by India.
Dead on both sides
In the territory of India, the authorities have reported 49 deaths, including the 26 tourists killed in the April 22nd attack, 15 civilians from the border clashes of the last two weeks, a soldier, and seven alleged infiltrators from Pakistan.
The Army of Pakistan, for its part, reported a total of 31 civilians dead and 57 injured, as a result of the Indian air strike carried out early Wednesday morning and the incessant exchange of fire on the Line of Control.
This number could be even higher, since according to sources from the Indian Ministry of Defense, in the air bombing on May 7, about "100 terrorists" died by Indian fire.
The attacks
Indian air strikes are part of an operation called 'Operation Sindoor', a reprisal for the massacre of tourists, which India blames on Pakistan.
The term 'Sindoor' refers to the red pigment that married Hindu women wear on their foreheads shortly after their wedding, symbolizing the widowhood of the women left behind by the attackers of April 22. All the victims of that massacre were men identified as non-Muslims.
Simultaneously, daily clashes have persisted along the Line of Control for over two weeks, marking this Friday the fifteenth day of continuous exchange of fire.
Hundreds of families residing in the vicinity of this disputed area have been forced to flee their homes due to the intensity of the fighting.
Kashmir, a mountainous region in the Himalayas whose sovereignty has been disputed by India and Pakistan since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, is divided into two zones administered by each country, separated by the Line of Control, but both nations claim the entire region.
