Indian and Pakistani soldiers have exchanged heavy volleys of shells and gunfire across their frontier in Kashmir, killing at least five civilians in a growing military standoff.

The people of Kashmir have for decades been caught in the middle of the bitter rivalry between Pakistan and India over the disputed Himalayan region they call home.

Pakistan said Indian drones killed two civilians and wounded four soldiers, as India accused its neighbor of attempting its own attack.

India fired missiles into Pakistani-controlled territory early Wednesday, calling it retaliation for last month’s massacre of tourists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has governed Kashmir with an iron fist in recent years.

India and Pakistan have been scrambling resources both military and diplomatic to respond to a crisis triggered by a massacre in Indian-controlled Kashmir that has heightened fears of a conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Iran’s foreign minister has held talks with top Pakistani officials to try and mediate in the escalation between Islamabad and New Delhi after last month’s deadly attack on tourists in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.

Pakistan has test fired a ballistic missile as tensions with India spike over last month's deadly attack on tourists in the disputed Kashmir region.

Neelum Valley in northern Pakistan attracts some 300,000 tourists each summer who marvel at its natural beauty.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called senior officials in India and Pakistan in an effort to defuse the crisis that followed last week’s deadly attack in Kashmir, the State Department said.

The Associated Press has collected some of the first witness accounts of the massacre in Indian-controlled Kashmir that left 26 people dead.

Pakistan says it has “credible intelligence” that India is planning to attack it within days over last week's deadly attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir have temporarily closed more than half of the resorts in the scenic Himalayan region following a deadly attack on tourists.

Pakistan’s military says its security forces overnight have killed 54 militants who attempted to cross into the country from neighboring Afghanistan.

India’s military says Pakistani soldiers shot at Indian posts along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir for a second consecutive night.

India and Pakistan have intensified their hostilities over the hotly contested Kashmir region following a massacre of 26 mostly Indian tourists, which New Delhi linked to Pakistan.

Indian officials says that Indian and Pakistani soldiers briefly exchanged fire along their highly militarized frontier in Kashmir.

A deadly attack on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir has again moved India and Pakistan closer to war.

India and Pakistan have cancelled visas for their nationals to each other’s countries as tensions rise between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

At least 26 people were killed and more than a dozen injured after gunmen opened fire on a group of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

India is blaming Pakistan for a militant attack that killed 26 people in Indian-held Kashmir, downgrading diplomatic ties and suspending a crucial water-sharing treaty.

At least 26 people have been killed and 17 others wounded after gunmen opened fire on a group of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the worst assault in years targeting civilians in the restive region that has seen an anti-India rebellion for more than three decades.

Indian police say gunmen have killed at least 26 tourists at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistan's military says its security forces have raided a militant hideout in the restive northwest near the Afghan border and killed nine militants.

Shaksaaz, a tailor in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar, inherited his passion for local Sufi music from his grandfather along with a meticulously preserved collection of cassette tapes from the 1970s, which he often listens to as he works.

Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir have raided bookstores and seized 668 books linked to a major Islamic organization in the disputed region, where strict controls on the press have escalated in recent years.

Pakistani police say unidentified gunmen shot and killed a police officer working on Pakistan’s first polio vaccination drive of the year.

Indian police say that gunmen killed at least seven people working on a strategic tunnel project in Indian-controlled Kashmir and injured at least five others.

Pakistan’s leader says the country has met all the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund to qualify for a new $7 billion loan to help prop up its economy.

Pakistan has developed and successfully tested a government messaging app for secure communication among officials, even as it restricts social media use and regularly shuts down internet and mobile phone networks to prevent dissent.

Officials say a speeding passenger bus fell off a highway into a ravine in southwest Pakistan, killing 28 people and injuring 20.

Police say suspected militants have bombed a girl's school in a former Pakistani Taliban stronghold, destroying the structure.

Police say suspected militants bombed a girls school in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s volatile northwest, badly damaging the structure.

Officials say a Pakistani appeals court has suspended a 14-year prison sentence for former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife in a corruption case.

Pakistan’s media regulators have blocked the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, with users across the country enduring the sixth day of sweeping disruptions, partial and complete shutdowns.

Pakistan has accused neighboring India’s intelligence agency of involvement in the extrajudicial killings of its citizens, saying it had credible evidence linking two Indian agents to the deaths of two people in Pakistan last year.

A prolonged dry spell is sweeping across the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir during the harshest phase of winter, leaving many people sick and farmers worried about impending water shortages.

Human rights activists say Pakistan’s police used water cannons, swung batons, and arrested dozens of activists overnight when they tried to enter Islamabad for a protest.

Pakistan’s interim prime minister says he expects elections to take place in the new year, dismissing the possibility that the country’s powerful military would manipulate the results to ensure that jailed former premier Imran Khan’s party doesn’t win.

For over three decades, Kashmiris have been living through multiple crises.

Intense rainfall in the Himalayan regions of India’s Kashmir state and adjacent mountainous cold desert of Ladakh earlier this week destroyed roads and caused flooding of dozens of villages.

The eleven-year-old daughter of a prominent Kashmiri rebel leader who faces life in prison in neighboring India has issued an emotional appeal, urging New Delhi to allow her to meet her father.

Pakistan's military says a group of militants has ambushed troops during a search operation against insurgents in southwestern Pakistan, triggering a shootout that left an army major and a junior officer dead.

Pakistani police say gunmen have shot and killed a member of Pakistan’s minority Sikh community in an overnight attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Delegates from the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations have begun a meeting on tourism in Indian-controlled Kashmir that was condemned by China and Pakistan, as authorities reduced the visibility of security in the disputed region’s main city.

As India prepares to host a meeting of tourism officials from the Group of 20 in the disputed region of Kashmir, authorities have deployed elite commandos and stepped up security in the region’s largest city.

Officials say a police officer tasked with protecting a private school for girls in northwestern Pakistan has opened fire at a school bus carrying teachers and students, killing an 8-year-old girl and injuring five others.

Gunmen have stormed a school in Pakistan’s volatile northwest, killing seven teachers and gunning down another teacher from the school in a separate attack.

A defense lawyer says a Chinese national who was arrested in Pakistan on charges of blasphemy has been released after a court granted him bail.

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake has rattled much of Pakistan and Afghanistan, sending panicked residents fleeing from their homes and offices.

Days after seven Hindus were killed in a village in disputed Kashmir, hundreds of residents staged protests across the region's Hindu-dominated areas.

A defense lawyer says a court in northwest Pakistan has acquitted the parents of an exiled female human rights activist three years after the couple was arrested on charges of terror financing and sedition.

Police say hundreds of Muslims descended on a police station in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, snatched a blasphemy suspect from his cell and took him outside and lynched him.

India’s main opposition Congress party has ended a five-month cross-country “unity march” in disputed Kashmir with hundreds of members of various opposition groups joining in a public rally in freezing temperatures.

Two children have been killed and five other civilians wounded in a blast in a village in Indian-controlled Kashmir a day after assailants sprayed bullets toward homes, killing at least four.

Officials say Pakistani forces have expanded their search for the perpetrators in multiple attacks that killed six troops and wounded 17 civilians in a restive southwestern province the previous day.

Israel’s envoy to India has denounced a filmmaker from his country after he called a blockbuster Bollywood film on disputed Kashmir a “propaganda” and “vulgar movie” at a film festival.

A multi-screen cinema hall has opened in the main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir for the first time in 14 years.

The Asian Development Bank says it is devoting at least $14 billion through 2025 to help ease a worsening food crisis in the Asia-Pacific.

The remains of an Indian army soldier have been found more than 38 years after he went missing on a glacier at the highest point along the heavily militarized contested border between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.

Emergency workers have rescued thousands of pilgrims after flash floods triggered by sudden rains swept through their makeshift camps during an annual Hindu pilgrimage to an icy Himalayan cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

A burgeoning form of resistance music laced with religious metaphors is fast taking wing in Kashmir, a disputed region divided between rivals India and Pakistan.

Officials say rescuers have found the bodies of eight more workers in Indian-controlled Kashmir, taking the death toll to nine after part of a tunnel collapsed in the Himalayan region.

One person has been killed and more than 20 others injured in Indian-controlled Kashmir when an assailant lobbed a grenade at a busy market in the region's main city.

Journalists in Indian-controlled Kashmir have long contended with threats and found themselves caught between the authorities and rebels.

A London law firm has filed an application with British police seeking the arrest of India’s army chief and a senior Indian government official over their alleged roles in war crimes in disputed Kashmir.

A crowd surge at a popular Hindu shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir has killed at least 12 people and injured 15 others on New Year’s Day.

The largest mosque in the disputed region of Kashmir dominates its neighborhood with an imposing main gate and massive turrets.

Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir have ordered an investigation into a police raid that killed four people.

A spate of recent killings has rattled Indian-controlled Kashmir, with violence targeting local minority members and Indian civilians from outside the disputed region.

The speeches may be scripted, but the United Nations General Assembly can sometimes be the only direct window into the regional challenges that command global concern.

India’s leaders are anxiously watching the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, fearing that it will benefit their bitter rival Pakistan and feed a long-simmering insurgency in the disputed region of Kashmir, where militants already have a foothold.

Police in Kashmir have opened a case against family members of late resistance leader Syed Ali Geelani under a harsh anti-terror law for raising anti-India slogans and wrapping his body in the Pakistani flag.

The death of a top separatist leader in disputed Kashmir has sparked a crackdown on public movement and communications by Indian authorities and highlighting the turmoil seething just below the surface in the region.

Indian authorities have restricted public movement and cut communications in disputed Kashmir after the death of top separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani.

Syed Ali Geelani, an icon of disputed Kashmir’s resistance against Indian rule and a top separatist leader who became the emblem of the region’s defiance against New Delhi, has died at 91.

Indian officials say they suspect explosives-laden drones were used to attack an air base in the disputed region of Kashmir.

The United Arab Emirates played a role in getting longtime Asian rivals India and Pakistan to agree to a cease-fire amid tensions over the disputed region of Kashmir.

However, the exact details of the licensing agreements between the Serum Institute and AstraZeneca aren't known. Britain’s deal to import 10 million doses of vaccines from India was part of an earlier order of 100 million doses from AstraZeneca, which was announced on March 4. Britain says the Serum Institute made assurances that these doses wouldn’t jeopardize supplies to poor nations. Meanwhile, vaccine makers and experts in India are concerned the U.S. is not allowing enough vaccine supplies to be exported under the Defense Production Act. Although the Serum Institute confirmed this wasn’t a factor delaying vaccine doses to Britain, they said it's potentially a major obstacle going forward.

India ended an 18-month-long ban on high speed internet services on mobile devices in disputed Kashmir, where opposition to New Delhi has deepened after it revoked the region's semi-autonomy. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File)SRINAGAR – India ended an 18-month-long ban on high speed internet services on mobile devices in disputed Kashmir, where opposition to New Delhi has deepened after it revoked the region's semi-autonomy. Two months later, authorities revoked a ban on social media and restored full internet connectivity but not high speed internet. We should be asking for compensation for our deprivation and losses.”India often snaps mobile internet services in parts of the region as a tactic during counterinsurgency operations and anti-India protests. The move attracted global attention after pop star Rihanna on Tuesday tweeted a link of a CNN news report about India blocking internet services at the protest sites.

According to police, Indian government forces killed Saifullah Mir, a top rebel commander of the region's largest rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen which has spearheaded an armed rebellion against Indian rule for decades. (AP Photo/ Dar Yasin)SRINAGAR – Indian government forces killed a top rebel commander in Kashmir during a gunbattle Sunday in the disputed region’s main city, police said, calling it a major success against the rebels' long fight against Indian rule. The dead commander, Saifullah Mir, was the chief of operations of the region’s largest rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen, which has spearheaded an armed rebellion against Indian rule for decades. According to officials, Saifullah joined the rebels' ranks in 2014 and took charge of the Hizbul Mujahideen as its top operations commander after Indian troops killed his predecessor Reyaz Naikoo in May. Rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989.

India is the second worst-nation in terms of confirmed coronavirus caseload. The Health Ministry reported 63,509 new cases on Wednesday, raising India’s total to more than 7.2 million, second in the world behind the U.S. China on Wednesday reported 27 new cases, including 13 of local transmission and 14 brought from outside the country. It wasn’t immediately clear whether any of those involved cases reported in Qingdao. China has reported a total of 4,634 deaths among 85,611 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

India also is behind only the U.S. in number of cases, with 5.9 million reported so far. However, India's daily number of new cases has been declining, with recoveries exceeding reported new cases this week. India and Pakistan split control over Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan area claimed by both. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India. Meanwhile, India and China have been squaring off in Ladakh, a region abutting Kashmir.

___5:50 p.m.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tell the U.N. General Assembly that the coronavirus pandemic has frayed the bonds between nations and will urge world leaders to unite against the “common foe” of COVID-19. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi also used his U.N. speech this week to describe the dam, Africa’s largest, as an existential threat. Khan has frequently criticized the decision by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2019 to strip Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, scrap its separate constitution and remove inherited protections on land and jobs. The United Kingdom is a founding nation of the United Nations and a member of the Security Council, and the country has been a global diplomatic juggernaut for centuries. Michel’s ire was raised when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would contemplate breaking an agreement he signed with the EU.

As the escalating and bitter military standoff between India and China protracts following their bloodiest confrontation in decades in the Ladakh region in 2020, experts warn the two nuclear-armed countries can unintentionally slide into a war over the roof of the world. It was the first high-level direct contact between the sides since the standoff erupted in the Ladakh region four months ago. In turn, Chinas Defense Ministry accused Indian troops of crossing established lines of control and creating provocations along the border. The nations fought a border war in 1962 that also spilled into Ladakh and ended in a fragile truce. According to some Indian and Chinese strategic experts, Indias move exacerbated existing tensions with China, leading to the June border clash.

Authorities reimposed lockdown on Monday in parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir, including the region's main city, following surge in coronavirus cases. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)NEW DELHI India's number of coronavirus cases jumped by another 28,000 on Tuesday and are fast approaching 1 million. The 28,498 cases reported in the past 24 hours took the national total to 906,752. The Health Ministry also reported another 553 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities up to 23,727. The figures announced by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought the caseload to 13,512 cases, including 289 deaths.

Activists of Jammu and Kashmir Dogra Front shout slogans against Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest in Jammu, India, Wednesday, July.1, 2020. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)BEIJING China accused India on Thursday of improperly disrupting activity by Chinese companies in the midst of tensions over a border clash. The spokesman, Gao Feng, accused India had taken unspecified improper action. Indias relevant practices violate relevant World Trade Organization rules," Gao said, according to the official China News Service. Gao expressed hope India would immediately correct the discriminatory practices against China and Chinese enterprises.

Relatives comfort the grieving daughter of civilian Bashir Ahmed Khan at their residence on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, July 1, 2020. Suspected rebels attacked paramilitary soldiers in the Indian portion of Kashmir, killing Khan and a paramilitary soldier, according to government sources. According to the family, Khan was driving in his car with his grandson from his home in the main city of Srinagar. Theres not even a scratch or a bullet mark on his car, Ahmed said, as he wailed. Pakistan denies this, saying it offers only moral and diplomatic support to the militants and to Kashmiris who oppose Indian rule.

Indians burn products made in China during a protest against the Chinese government in Lucknow, India, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. India and China sought Wednesday to de-escalate tensions following a fatal clash along a disputed border high in the Himalayas that left 20 Indian soldiers dead. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)NEW DELHI India and China sought Wednesday to de-escalate tensions after flexing their muscles in a fatal clash along a disputed border high in the Himalayas that left 20 Indian soldiers dead. Scuffles are not uncommon, but Indian authorities say China upped the ante when its troops breached the line of control. But the bigger cause for antagonism lies in the Himalayas: a region China has always considered a strategically vital corridor between its restive Muslim Xinjiang region and Tibet.

(AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)NEW DELHI: India reported a new rise of nearly 10,000 coronavirus infections Wednesday, with a total caseload of 276,583, the fifth highest in the world. The Health Ministry confirmed 9,985 new cases and 274 deaths in the last 24 hours. The figures from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday brought national totals to 11,902 cases and 276 deaths. ___BEIJING With much of the country re-opened under safety measures, China has announced three new confirmed cases of coronavirus, all brought from outside the country. China has reported a total of 4,634 deaths among 83,046 cases of COVID-19 since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

A Kashmiri man douses a fire in a house which was damaged in a gun-battle in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, May 19, 2020. Indian government forces killed two rebels in disputed Kashmir on Tuesday and shut down cellphone and mobile internet services during subsequent anti-India protests, officials and residents said. (AP Photo/ Dar Yasin)SRINAGAR A rebel commander and his aide were killed in a gunbattle with government forces in Kashmir's main city on Tuesday, officials said, triggering anti-India protests and clashes in the disputed region. Indian troops killed the regions top commander and his close aide in southern Kashmir valley several weeks ago. Rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989.

TOP OF THE HOUR: India reports 5,242 new cases, largest single-day surge, and 157 deaths. ___SEOUL, South Korea South Korea has reported 15 new coronavirus cases and one more death, bringing its totals to 11,065 cases and 263 fatalities. ___PORTLAND, Ore. Oregon health officials say hospitals will be provided with an experimental drug that has shown some promise treating the coronavirus. Health officials say the first outbreak of the coronavirus at a nursing home in Wyoming has infected at least nine people. He told CBS Face the Nation: I believe the CDC serves an important public health role.___Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

NEW DELHI - India has officially split the former state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories, a move that gives the government in New Delhi greater control over the disputed Muslim-majority region. From Thursday, most of Jammu and Kashmir -- including a section of the disputed Kashmir Valley controlled by India -- was stripped of its statehood and turned into one union territory. Revoking Kashmir's special status was one of the promises made by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party ahead of recent national elections. Also on August 5, the government introduced a bill to change Jammu and Kashmir's administrative status from a state to a union territory. The move prompted uproar from opposition parties, with critics saying the changes to Kashmir's status could further inflame tensions and the risk of violence in an already unstable region.

Millions of residents in the Kashmir Valley -- one of the most militarized regions in the world -- are living behind a virtual curtain. In an unprecedented move, the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut off the entire Jammu and Kashmir region at midnight on August 5. But special provisions were added to the Indian constitution, under Article 370, to protect the rights of the territory's residents. The only Muslim-majority state in India, Jammu and Kashmir has erupted with violent protests over the past few years. While the Kashmir Valley is familiar with internet blackouts, the latest all-encompassing ban on broadband, landlines and even cable TV has not been enforced before.

(CNN) - As a communications blackout continues in Kashmir, the BBC is using one of the only ways to reach listeners in the Indian-controlled state: shortwave radio. The BBC is extending its Hindi radio output by 30 minutes, launching a 15-minute daily program in Urdu, and expanding its English broadcasts by an hour. Indian-controlled Kashmir is under a tight security lockdown and total communications blackout. Shortwave radio bands are able travel long distances using very high frequencies, unlike traditional radio waves that need to travel in straight lines. "People value the BBC because it's independent and one step removed from the national heat around these discussions, that's why people value our reporting."

The bill -- passed by the lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, on Tuesday -- will change Jammu and Kashmir's administrative status from a state to a union territory. In the Indian system, state governments retain significant authority over local matters, but New Delhi has more of a say in the affairs of a union territory. Revoking Kashmir's special status was one of the promises made by Modi's Hindu nationalist party ahead of recent national elections. As a union territory, it will be overseen by a New Delhi-appointed official. The move to revoke Indian-controlled Kashmir's special status and turn the state it into a union territory also prompted uproar from opposition parties.