MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Nov 23: Pakistani officials say the death toll from shelling by India of a passenger bus and villages along the dividing line in the disputed region of Kashmir has risen to 11.

Waheed Khan, a local official, says an artillery shell hit the bus in the Neelum Valley on Wednesday, killing nine people.

Police official Waseem Khan says another two died when a mortar shell hit their house in the Nakyal sector of the Pakistani-held part of Kashmir.

Pakistani army says troops are firing back on Indian military positions.

An Indian army spokesman, Col. Nitin Joshi, says India was responding to Pakistan's violation of a cease-fire.

Tensions in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between the two nuclear-armed neighbors and claimed by both in its entirety, have escalated recently with deadly exchanges.

 
• indian shelling
 
• pakistan
 
• india