ISLAMABAD, May 9: Pakistan charged India Friday with bringing the nuclear-armed neighbours "closer to a major conflict", as the death toll from three days of missile, artillery and drone attacks passed 50.
The bloody escalation comes after an attack on tourists last month in the Indian-run part of disputed Kashmir that killed 26 people and which New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing -- an allegation Pakistan denied.
India responded with air strikes Wednesday on what it called "terrorist camps" in Pakistan, fuelling the worst clashes between the two in decades.
On a third day of tit-for-tat exchanges since, the Indian army said it "repulsed" waves of Pakistani attacks using drones and other munitions overnight, and gave a "befitting reply".
India also accused Pakistani forces on Thursday of targeting three military stations -- two in Kashmir and one in the neighbouring state of Punjab.
Pakistan's Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said Pakistan had "not targeted any locations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir, or across international border, so far".
The two countries have fought several wars over Kashmir since their independence from Britain in 1947.
'War hysteria'
Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman said Friday that India's "jingoism and war hysteria" should be a source of serious concern for the world.
"It is most unfortunate that India's reckless conduct has brought the two nuclear-armed states closer to a major conflict," Shafqat Ali Khan told a briefing in the capital, Islamabad.
Pakistani security and government officials said five civilians -- including a two-year-old girl -- were killed by Indian shelling overnight in areas along the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC), which divides Kashmir.
"In response, the Pakistan Army carried out a strong counterattack, targeting three Indian posts," police official Adeel Khan, told AFP from Kotli district, where four of the deaths occurred. �"AFP
