ISTANBUL 

The Pakistan Army used heavy artillery and mortar shelling on forward villages along the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border between India and Pakistan, killing at least 12 people and injuring 57 others on Wednesday, according to a Press Trust of India report.

A ruling Jammu and Kashmir National Conference party lawmaker, Ajaz Jan, visited a hospital in the Poonch district in Indian-administered Kashmir to review the situation.

“The situation remains extremely tense,” the party said.

The latest escalation between two nuclear-armed nations comes after India launched overnight missile strikes inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, hitting what New Delhi said were “nine terrorist locations.”

The Pakistani Army said in a statement that at least 26 people, including five in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, were killed and 46 others injured as a result of Indian strikes, noting that the Indian missiles targeted six locations.

The escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbors comes in the wake of an April 22 attack in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed.

India blamed Pakistan for the attack, claiming there were cross-border links. Pakistan denied that it had anything to do with the killings. Islamabad offered a neutral probe into the attack with third-party monitoring.