Children Killed in Pakistani Kashmir Playing with Bomb

Two young children were killed in Pakistan's Kashmir region on Thursday after picking up an explosive device that they thought was a toy, police said.

Police said the incident occurred in Kharal Maldilan village in the disputed Himalayan territory's Bagh district, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the capital Muzaffarabad.

"A six-year-old boy and his nine-year-old sister were killed in the blast while another sister aged 13 and their mother were injured," Hasan Wazir Afridi, a local police official, told Agence France-Presse.

"The blast occurred when the young boy discovered an object resembling a ball in the street and took it home to play with his sisters," he said.

Afridi said it was unclear exactly what the device was or how it came to be in the village, which lies some distance from the de facto border with India.

A senior police official in the region, Riaz Mughal also confirmed the event.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the two countries won independence from Britain in 1947. Both claim the scenic Himalayan territory in full.

The nuclear-armed neighbors, who have fought two wars over Muslim-majority Kashmir, have traded blame for the upsurge in firing and shelling in recent months.