India accuses Pakistan of ceasefire violation

India accused Pakistan of trying to push militants into divided Kashmir under the cover of fire.

JAMMU: India’s army on Thursday accused Pakistan of violating a ceasefire along their militarised border, accusing it of trying to push militants into divided Kashmir under the cover of fire. Pakistan denies the charge.

A defence spokesman said Indian military posts in southern Kashmir came under small arms and mortar fire from across the border in a pre-dawn skirmish with Pakistani troops that lasted around two hours.

“Pakistani troops opened unprovoked firing at Indian posts and targeted several positions in Poonch” District Lieutenant, Colonel Biplab Nath said in Indian Kashmir’s winter capital Jammu.

“Our soldiers retaliated to the firing,” Nath said, adding there were no casualties on the Indian side in Poonch, a hilly Kashmir district some 240 kilometres northwest of Jammu.

The Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted an Indian commander as saying dozens of mortar shells exploded around Indian posts.

“It is ceasefire violation and it was aimed at infiltrating militants into this side of the Line of Control (LoC),” Brigadier S Dua said, referring to a de facto border which divides the Indian and Pakistani zones of Kashmir.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2010.