At least six Pakistani civilians were killed and 46 others, including 22 women, were injured in the latest Indian shelling on Friday. They are the largest casualties on a single day in recent cross-border attacks, the Pakistani military said.

Several villages along the border came under heavy fire that forced many people to flee, residents said.

"Six civilians embraced 'shahadat' (martyrdom) and 46 were severely injured, including 22 females, due to India's unprovoked firing/shelling on Working Boundary near Sialkot in Chaprar and Harpal sectors," an army statement said.

The statement said that Kanganpur and Bajra Gari were the worst hit villages along the Indian border.

"Pakistani troops are befittingly responding to Indian firing," the statement from the army's Inter-Service Public Relations said.

The injured were shifted to Combined Military Hospital in Sialkot, the main city near the border with India.

The latest cross-border shelling has taken place ahead of a meeting of the Pakistani and Indian border officials in New Delhi.

Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said on Thursday that a meeting between the director general of the Pakistan Rangers and his Indian counterpart will take place in New Delhi next month. The Rangers, a paramilitary force, perform duties along the border with India in Punjab and eastern Sindh province.

The spokesman told a weekly briefing that the officials will discuss cease-fire violations at the Line of Control in disputed Kashmir and the Working Boundary.

Pakistan called off talks with India this week over what it called "preconditions" by India.

Pakistan and India accuse each other of violating the 2003 cease-fire. Guns have been relatively silent since the cease-fire; however, both sides occasionally exchange fire. An escalation has been seen in recent weeks and it has been mostly civilians killed and injured.

Both routinely accuse each other of cease-fire violations.

Pakistan insists there have been more than 70 cease-fire violations from the Indian side of the Line of Control and the Working Boundary so far this month.

(China Daily 08/29/2015 page9)