Indian, Pakistani troops exchange fire in disputed Kashmir region

Jul 10, 2008, 14:27 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistan claimed on Thursday that its troops had briefly traded fire with Indian soldiers on the de facto border with India in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

Major General Athar Abbas, Pakistan Army's spokesman, said the Indian border troops opened fire around 02:00 at one of the Pakistani check posts in the Battal sector of Rawalakot district without any provocation.

'The fire stopped when our soldiers retaliated with the same force,' he said. There had been no causality on the Pakistani side.

The nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours have fought two wars in the Kashmir region, over which both lay claim, since they gained their independence from Britain in 1947. They went to the brink of a third conflict in 2002.

But generally they been observing a ceasefire along the de facto border, the Line of Control dividing Indian- and Pakistan- administered territories, since they launched peace process in 2004.

Occasional violations of the truce, however, take place. On May 19 this year four Pakistani soldiers were killed in a border clash in Battal sector.

'This is the second major violation of the ceasefire from the Indian side over the last four years,' said Abbas.

'Our local commander has contacted his Indian counterpart and demanded a flag meeting to discuss the ways how to avoid such things in the future,' he added.