Twins, 12, among victims of Pakistani retaliatory attacks

Deadly shelling on Indian border towns in Kashmir has left a trail of devastation, with homes shattered and families torn apart,

- Shweta Sharma and Mohammad Dawood report

Clutching their father’s hand, 12-year-old twins Zain and Zoya tried to escape night-time shelling, part of the deadly crossfire that has erupted between India and Pakistan.

They were fleeing to safety after a loud blast shook their house in the Indian border town of Poonch. But they had barely stepped outside when another explosion tore through the street, killing them both.

“They came [into the world] together and they died together,” their uncle, Adil Pathan, told The Independent. “One of them took their last breaths in my arms.”

Their father, Ramees Khan, was injured and remains in a stable condition at a hospital.

Poonch was one of the areas worst hit when Pakistan launched artillery fire in retaliation for India’s missile strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered territories. India says it was targeting terrorist camps following a militant attack last month in the Himalayan tourist haven of Pahalgam in Kashmir in which 26 civilians were killed.

The town lies some 30km from the Line of Control – the 740km-long de facto border between India and Pakistan – and is surrounded by mountains on three sides.

A Sikh temple, an Islamic school, and dozens of houses have been damaged by Pakistani fire in Poonch since India’s missile strikes, The Independent has learnt. “We do not want war. If the Indian government wants war, then it should be a full-fledged war. It is us who are paying with our blood for these hostilities. Our kids have died but it should not happen to other parents,” said Mr Pathan.

Poonch, a district where many Kashmiris had settled to escape hostilities in villages closer to the border, is no stranger to sporadic breakouts of fire from both sides.