The Indian government announced Thursday that 13 civilians were killed and 59 others injured in Pakistani artillery shelling along the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, as violence escalated into cross-border bombardments.

Indian Foreign Minister said that all the victims were from the town of Poonch, located in the northeastern region, where the majority of the casualties occurred.

The escalation comes a day after India launched three missiles targeting locations in Kashmir and Punjab, with one missile striking the old airport in Muzaffarabad, in the Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir.

In response, the Indian government said it had initiated a military operation aimed at targeting what it described as terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir, claiming to have struck nine Pakistani positions in the ongoing conflict.

The latest flare-up underscores the growing instability along the LoC, raising concerns of a potential full-scale confrontation between the two nuclear-armed nations.