THE family of a Nelson man had to flee for their lives over mountain paths at night to escape the shelling of their village as fighting in Kashmir escalated.

Mohammed Aslam, secretary of the Kashmir Welfare Association in Pendle, received a telephone call from his elderly mother yesterday telling him she and other members of the family were safe although a number of villagers including children had been killed and injured.

Mr Aslam said: "It has been a very critical time. I received a telephone call on Sunday afternoon to say my family was trying to get out after the whole village had come under shelling.

"They had to walk in the dark for about five kilometres to a safer area. Some of the elderly were helped out on the back of motorbikes.''

He said: "The Indian Army were targeting buses on the roads and even the school. Some people were killed and others injured when a mortar blew a hole in the road right in front of the bus which then went into the hole.''

Mr Aslam said: "Of course it was a big relief to speak to my mother. I have been very worried. It is a big relief to know that my family have escaped although two of my aunties have stayed in the village.

"They have cattle and no other place to live. They cannot just go and leave the animals. The people there are very desperate and frightened.''

Mr Aslam's home village of Bandala is on the demarcation line of the territories being disputed by India and Pakistan. Indian soldiers are commandeering the high mountains and shelling the road nearby.

He said one of the people who was killed was a friend he went to school with. That man's sister and children had also died. Ambulances had tried to get the injured to hospital but parts of the road had been totally destroyed by the shelling.

A leading campaigner for Kashmiri rights, Mr Aslam last year wrote to the Prime Minister and other political leaders telling them about the massacre of 22 people in his home village.

Members of his family escaped unhurt, but Mr Aslam said he knew some of the people affected by the unprovoked attack in a village.

He wrote to Mr Blair, William Hague and Paddy Ashdown to draw their attention to the atrocity as part of a continued campaign to highlight human rights abuses in the war-torn territory.

A group of British Islamic fundamentalists are reported to be among the insurgents held responsible for provoking the latest conflict.

Mr Aslam said: "I am not aware of anyone from over here fighting in Kashmir.

"To say insurgents are responsible is turning one's eyes away from realities.

"Everyone knows it is India and that it is the Indian air force which is killing innocent people."

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