Indian border guards kill 2 on border with Pakistan, raising tensions

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Indian border guards shot and killed two Pakistani nationals near the border in Punjab province Friday, Pakistani and Indian media reported, raising tensions between the two neighbors a year and a half after they stepped back from the brink of war in disputed Kashmir.

Pakistan Television, citing Pakistani security sources, said three unarmed civilians, residents of Kasur district in eastern Pakistan, had walked a few steps beyond a border pillar when personnel from India’s Border Security Force opened fire. Two were killed and a third wounded, it said.

There was no immediate comment from New Delhi, but Indian media carried a conflicting account, reporting that the men were suspected of trying to enter India.

The shooting came a day after Pakistan’s military disputed India’s claim that its security forces had killed a senior commander from the Lashkar-e-Taiba extremist group in Indian-controlled Kashmir, presenting a man it said India had wrongly identified as the dead militant.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, two over Kashmir. The disputed Himalayan region is divided between the nuclear-armed neighbors, both of which claim it in full.

In April 2025, gunmen in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed 26 tourists in an attack that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad. The violence triggered weeks of escalating clashes, including missile and drone strikes, bringing India and Pakistan to their most serious military confrontation in decades.

While India and Pakistan have frequently exchanged fire across disputed Kashmir in recent years, the international border in Punjab has remained largely peaceful.