Schools close in Kashmir amid cross border shelling

Schools along border in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir have been closed down amid continuous shelling.

Police said that parents are not sending their children to school due to fear of firing along the fence.

"All the schools in the area are closed as parents are not sending their kids to school due to fear of shelling," said a police official Mohammed Iqbal Khan.

Almost 20,000 Indian civilians have fled their homes in the lowlands around Jammu region to escape the fighting, taking refuge in schools and relief camps.

On the Pakistan side of the border, villagers moved among piles of debris from walls and roofs of their homes destroyed by mortar shells.

India held a meeting on Wednesday of its top security officials to discuss how to handle the conflict. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called a similar meeting on Friday.

Pakistan said on Thursday that it was capable of responding "befittingly" to Indian border shelling, and warned against an escalation of the worst fighting between the nuclear-armed rivals in more than a decade.

Nine Pakistani and eight Indian civilians have been killed since both sides' security forces started heavy shelling more than a week ago along a 200-km stretch of border in the disputed, mostly Muslim region of Kashmir.

More were injured on Thursday. Both countries accused each other of starting the latest hostilities that have hit heavily populated civilian areas. India says it will not talk to Pakistan or stop firing until its neighbour backs down first.

India earlier warned Pakistan it would pay an "unaffordable price" if it persisted with shelling and machine-gun fire across a heavily populated border area in the lowlands of Kashmir.