SRINAGAR: The Pakistani military said on Wednesday one of its officers had been killed in what it called unprovoked firing by Indian troops across the Line of Control in Kashmir but an Indian official said his side had only responded to initial Pakistani fire.
The incident was the latest in a series of clashes that began this month which has undermined a push by Pakistan’s new civilian government to improve ties with old rival India.
Pakistan summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner Gopal Baglay and registered a protest over what it described as “Indian aggression” on the LoC.
The Foreign Office summoned Baglay and registered a strong protest following fresh firing on the Line of Control in Kashmir, officials said.
In New Delhi, officials said Indian troops had only responded to unprovoked firing by Pakistani forces in Marol sector of the ceasefire line.
Pakistani forces at a post in Marol Sector resorted to unprovoked firing at an Indian post in Kargil sector from 2100 hrs on August 20 to 0400 hrs on August 21, the officials said.
The Pakistani troops used small arms, automatic weapons and mortars to target the Indian side. “Appropriate retaliation was carried out by the Indian Army,” an official said.
According to the officials, the heavy shelling and firing continued from 11pm to 2am in Shimka sector near Skardu in which Indian troops used both small and big weapons.
The Pakistan army officer killed was identified as Captain Sarfaraz and the injured soldier as Yaseen.
The two armies have blamed each other of several violations of a 2003 ceasefire on the LoC. The firing began after five Indian soldiers were killed in an attack by Pakistani troops along the LoC about two weeks ago.
The civilian leadership in Islamabad is trying to create peace and the Foreign Office spokesman said last week that all diplomatic and military channels between the two sides were open.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in his first televised speech on Monday, said he wants to work with India for regional peace and prosperity. Sharif has repeatedly said he wants to meet his Indian counterpart on the margins of the UN General Assembly in September.
The violence came two weeks after the killing of five Indian soldiers along the so-called Line of Control that separates the two sides in Kashmir. India said the five were killed by Pakistani forces but Pakistan denied involvement.
The nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars since 1947, two of them over Kashmir. They nearly fought fourth one in 1999 on the Kargil heights.
A truce along their Kashmir border has held for nearly a decade even though it has been broken every now and then by tit-for-tat artillery fire and the occasional cross-border ambush.
An Indian army official said Indian troops came under heavy mortar and light-machine gun fire from the Pakistani side on Tuesday night in the Kargil region, where the two sides fought an undeclared war in 1999.
The Kargil region had been peaceful since then until shooting began again last week.
“Under intense pressure … we fired back,” the Indian official said.
EYES ON AFGHANISTAN
Nevertheless, despite Pakistan’s denials that it helps the militants, fighters have for years slipped from the Pakistani side of Kashmir into the Indian side to battle Indian forces.
India says that this year it has seen a spike in attempts by militants to infiltrate into its part of Kashmir.
Many analysts expect the trend to continue as the two countries jostle for influence in Afghanistan as a NATO force prepares to withdraw by the end of 2014. Agencies
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