Indian troops fire at Pak

Pakistan said Thursday Indian forces fired on its troops deployed at a forward post along the de-facto border dividing Kashmir between the two countries, a senior military official said. Pakistani troops fired back in retaliation but there was no immediate report of casualties in the exchange. The Indian army confirmed an incident on the heavily militarised border but said its troops had fired at suspected Islamic militant infiltrators and not Pakistani troops. The incident occurred at Battal in Rawalakot sector on the Line of Control which separates the Indian and Pakistani parts of the Himalayan territory, chief Pakistani military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. ‘Indians fired two mortars and small arms on a Pakistani check post at 2:00pm (0800 GMT),’ Abbas said. Abbas said Pakistani soldiers retaliated with mortars and small arms, adding that a protest was communicated through a hot line across the border. ‘Pakistan is demanding an immediate meeting at the level of Directors General Military Operations,’ he said. The incident was a rare violation of a ceasefire which Pakistan and India agreed to hold in November 2003 along the Line of Control before they launched peace talks in January 2004. Speaking in Jammu on the Indian side of the line, Indian army spokesman SD Goswami said that the shooting was to ‘prevent infiltration by a group of militants’ into India. ‘Soldiers were successful in their effort. They never fired at Pakistani troops,’ he said. He in turn accused Pakistani soldiers of simultaneously firing at Indian positions with small and medium arms close to the place where the militants were trying to infiltrate. ‘We did not retaliate at all,’ the spokesman said, There were no causalities on the either side, Indian officials added.