Muzaffarabad - Indian troops targeted a funeral in a border village of Azad Kashmir from across the Line of Control (LoC) on Thursday, leaving two mourners dead and an elderly woman injured.

The incident occurred in Polas Kakuta village in the Abbaspur sector of Poonch district at about 4pm, when a group of people was busy carrying out the burial rites of a fellow villager, Abbaspur police official Anjum Saleem told a private TV channel.

“Indian troops resorted to shelling without any provocation, targeting people in the local burial ground and as a result two mourners embraced martyrdom,” he said. The deceased, identified as Muhammad Iqbal Kiani and his cousin Shaukat Kiani, belonged to the nearby village of Chaffar. They were in their late forties. A 65-year-old widow Hasira Begum was also injured by shelling when she was performing some household chores outside her house in Chaffar village. She was also brought to THQ Hospital, but her condition was stated to be out of danger.

According to Saeed Qureshi, a director at the State Disaster Management Authority, the latest civilian casualties had pushed the death toll since January to 46, whereas the number of injured persons had increased to 257.