India protests to Pakistan over border firing

Mar 21, 2009, 11:16 GMT

New Delhi - India Saturday alleged that Pakistani troops violated a ceasefire agreement and fired at frontline Indian positions in the northern Jammu and Kashmir state leaving a soldier wounded.

Pakistani forces fired at Indian troops in the Uri sector 70 kilometres west of state capital Srinagar overnight, the PTI news agency reported.

It was the first 'major ceasefire violation' since relations between the nuclear-capable neighbours sunk to a new low after November 2008 Mumbai attacks which Delhi said were carried out by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group.

A defence spokesman told PTI that the Pakistani troops fired between 1,500 to 2,000 rounds at the Indian posts along the Line of Control (LoC) between 10 pm on Friday night and 3 am on Saturday morning.

The LoC is a de facto border dividing the disputed Kashmir region into two parts, one administered by India and the other by Pakistan.

Indian troops retaliated to the 'unprovoked firing' by the Pakistani side but an Indian soldier was injured in the shoot-out, the report said.

The NDTV network reported that Indian army officials at the local level lodged a protest with their Pakistani counterparts on Saturday.

Officials told the news channel that Pakistani forces had resorted to firing to provide cover to Muslim militants to infiltrate into the troubled Indian region where a separatist insurgency that has claimed over 40,000 lives since late eighties.

There have been at least two encounters with militants near the border regions since Friday, the NDTV report said.

India says militants trained and supported by Pakistan regularly infiltrate into its part of Kashmir to launch major attacks. Pakistan, however, denies the charge and calls Kashmiri militants freedom fighters.

India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire on the borders of the two countries in 2003.

New Delhi has been voicing concern over the ceasefire violations on the border from time to time.

Indian army officials have claimed that there have been 34 incidents of ceasefire violation on the LoC last year.