UN observers visit attack site in Muzaffarabad

A mosque in Muzaffarabad stood half collapsed as daylight broke on Wednesday, its aged caretaker killed in a strike by India in the darkness.

It was one of six sites struck by New Delhi. "There were terrible sounds at night, there was panic among the people," said Muhammed Salman, who lives next door to the destroyed Bilal Mosque in Muzzaffarabad.

Several houses were damaged in the attack and the neighbouring school was closed on Wednesday, like all others across the region and in Punjab, after it was also hit.

"The children are very scared. We couldn't leave our place during the night but now we are moving to the house of our relatives," said 52-year-old mother Jamila Bibi.

United Nations military observers arrived at the site to inspect it on Wednesday. "We are moving to a safer place... We are homeless now," said 24-year-old Tariq Mir, who lives near the Bilal Mosque and was struck by shrapnel.

The 70-year-old caretaker of the mosque was buried on Wednesday in a funeral attended by more than 600 people, an AFP journalist witnessed.

In Bahawalpur, Ali Muhammed was also jolted awake. "We were sleeping when we heard an explosion," he said, standing among dozens of onlookers, most still on their scooters, observing the damage to Subhan mosque that was also hit.

Repeating rhetoric broadcast daily on television, radio, and social media by the military, Ali Muhammed said: "We know how to respond... we are not weak." "We are a nuclear power."

Meanwhile, residents of Muzaffarabad said they fled their homes and ran into surrounding hills as India launched airstrikes early on Wednesday in a part of the city.

Mosque loudspeakers told people to seek shelter as the ground shook repeatedly and the sounds of explosions reverberated, they said. "We came outside," said Muhammad Shair Mir, 46, describing the events of the night. "Then another blast happened. The whole house moved. Everyone got scared, we all evacuated, took our kids and went up (the hill)."

Many people gathered after sunrise near a mosque that had been hit in the strikes, its roof smashed and minaret toppled. Security forces had cordoned off the area. The district commissioner, a senior local official, said three people were killed near the collapsed mosque.

District officials said that at the Line of Control, mortar and light arms fire between the two armies continued into the morning and had killed at least six civilians on the Pakistani side.

In Muzaffarbad, hospitals were operational and some small businesses opened in the morning but schools were closed and examinations cancelled, according to local authorities.

Shair Mir said he and his family spent four hours in the open. Some of his neighbours had gone to hospital with injuries and the rest were shaken, he said. "This is wrong ... poor innocent people, our poor mothers are sick, our sisters are sick .. our houses were rattled, our walls have cracked," he said.