Pakistan, India Exchange Fire in Kashmir
Local Editor
Pakistan and India exchanged fresh fire across the de-facto Kashmir border Saturday, the Pakistani military said, with Indian officials stating there was no damage as tensions rise between the nuclear-armed rivals.
"Pakistani troops befittingly responded to Indian unprovoked firing" which started at 4:00 am [2300 GMT] and continued for four hours in Bhimber sector on the Pakistani side of the border, a military statement said.
"There was small arms fire and mortar shells fire from across the border in Akhnoor sector which lasted for around two hours [4:00 am to 6:00 am]," Pawan Kotwal, a top civilian official in Jammu and Kashmir State on the Indian side, told AFP.
"No damage was caused. We are ready for any eventuality but it is peaceful in Jammu region."
The skirmish came two days after India claimed it had carried out "surgical strikes" across the heavily militarized Line of Control [LoC], the de facto border in the disputed territory, on what it called "terrorist" targets several kilometers inside Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
The rare public admission of such action sparked furious rhetoric from Pakistan and calls for restraint from the US and the UN.
Tensions between the two arch rivals have been boiling since the Indian government accused Pakistan-based militants of launching an assault on an army base in Kashmir earlier this month that killed 18 soldiers.
"This is a dangerous moment for the region," Pakistan's Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told AFP after meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at UN headquarters in New York.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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