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India 'crosses Line of Control'

January 6, 2013

Pakistan's military has accused Indian troops of raiding one of its posts in Kashmir and killing a soldier. Accusations of border-crossing raids rarely occur in the disputed territory.

https://p.dw.com/p/17Eke
In this July 19, 2011 photo, Indian army soldiers return after a training session at the Siachen base camp, in Indian Kashmir on the border with Pakistan. The nuclear-armed South Asian nations have competing territorial claims to Siachen, often dubbed the world's highest battlefield, and troops have been locked in a standoff there at an altitude of up to 20,000 feet (6,100-meter) since 1984, when Indian forces occupied the glacier. Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries held talks Tuesday against the backdrop of a recent terror attack that killed 20 people in India's financial capital, ahead of the countries' foreign ministers meet Wednesday. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
Image: dapd

Indian troops crossed the Line of Control in Kashmir Sunday and attacked a Pakistani border post, leaving one Pakistani soldier dead and another wounded, according to the Pakistani military.

Indian troops "physically raided a checkpost named Sawan Patra," said Pakistan's military, adding that its soldiers had continued to exchange gunfire.

"Pakistan Army troops effectively responded to the attack successfully. One Pakistani soldier embraced martyrdom while another was critically injured," said the Pakistani statement.

But a spokesman for India’s army in Kashmir denied the accusations. Colonel Brijesh Pandey said that Pakistani soldiers had "initiated unprovoked firing" targeting Indian posts early on Sunday.

"There was heavy firing with mortar shells and automatic weapons at our positions in which at least one civilian home was destroyed," said Pandey.

"Our troops responded with light weapons, following which Pakistani shelling stopped," he added.

Muslim-majority Kashmir is a Himalayan region which India and Pakistan both claim in full but rule in part. It was the cause of two of their three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947.

Although both nations have honored a ceasefire in Kashmir since 2003, small-scale exchanges of gunfire sometimes occur. But accusations of border-crossing raids are rarely made.

Relations between Pakistan and India have been especially tense since peace talks stalled in 2008, when militants allegedly based in Pakistan carried out terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Islamabad denies letting militant groups operate on its territory to train and launch attacks on India.

sej/ipj (Reuters, AP)