The Indian government announced on Thursday that 13 civilians were killed by Pakistani artillery fire along the Line of Control, the de facto border between the two countries, following an escalation of violence into an exchange of artillery fire following a series of Indian strikes, according to Agence France-Presse.


The Indian Foreign Minister said that all those killed were in the town of Poonch (northeast), as were the majority of the 59 injured.
India and Pakistan exchanged heavy shelling on Wednesday, killing 31 people on the Pakistani side and 15 on the Indian side, in the most serious military confrontation between the two countries in two decades.
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated on April 22 after New Delhi accused Islamabad of being behind an attack targeting tourists in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, which killed 26 people and injured others.
In contrast, Islamabad denies any involvement in the attack, for which no group has claimed responsibility. Escalating tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad raise fears of an escalation in the military confrontation between the two nuclear powers, which have been at odds since the partition of the country in 1947.
Beijing and London quickly offered mediation to defuse the crisis, while the United Nations, Moscow, Washington, and Paris called for restraint.
India attacked Pakistan and the part of Kashmir administered by Islamabad on Tuesday night. Pakistan claimed to have shot down five Indian Rafale fighter jets, in what is considered the worst fighting between the two nuclear-armed neighbors in more than 20 years.
The Indian strikes targeted Pakistan's most densely populated province, Punjab, for the first time since the last full-scale war between the two countries more than 50 years ago, raising fears of an escalation of hostilities in one of the world's most dangerous and volatile regions.