SRINAGAR: There has been firing at the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, the first such incident after top military commanders of both the countries met last month to ease alarming tensions.
The Indian army says that Pakistani soldiers on Thursday night fired at their posts along the LoC in Poonch sector.
“Pakistani troopers resorted to small and medium weapon firing in Balnoi forward area along the LoC at 20.05 PM,” PRO Defence S N Acharya said in a statement.
The Pakistan military told the Press Trust of India (PTI) in Islamabad that Indian troops had resorted to “unprovoked firing” in the Tatta Pani-Handrot sector of the LoC.
There was no loss of life.
Last month top military generals of both the countries agreed to defuse growing friction over a series of border clashes, the worst since the two countries declared truce a decade ago.
India had summoned Pakistan’s top diplomat in New Delhi over accusations of Pakistani troops crossing the LoC and killing two soldiers, beheading one of them.
Pakistan denied the charges saying India was trying to “divert attention” from a previous incident when Indian soldiers allegedly crossed the LoC and killed a soldier and wounded another.
Amid calls for a magnified response from many quarters in India, the peace process between the two nuclear-armed rivals suffered a setback as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said things “could never be like before”.
Trade and travel across the LoC in Kashmir was also stalled as, Indian authorities said, Pakistan refused to open gates at Chakan-da-Bagh point in Poonch sector. Both of these resumed only recently.
No firing was reported on the LoC until Thursday.
The fresh clashes come as there is widespread anger in Kashmir, where a curfew is imposed after Afzal Guru, convicted for attack on the Indian parliament, was hanged at Delhi’s Tihar jail on Saturday.
