SRINAGAR, 18 January 2007 — An Indian official accused Pakistani forces of opening fire on border guards along the frontier of divided Kashmir to aid insurgents, but Pakistan’s military denied firing a shot.
Prem Singh, a spokesman for India’s Border Security Force or BSF, said Pakistani forces opened fire to provide cover for militants trying to cross into India’s part of divided Kashmir, where the insurgents are battling New Delhi’s rule.
He said it was the first violation of the 2003 cease-fire along the frontier dividing New Delhi’s and Islamabad’s portions of Kashmir. “Two of our men, including an officer, were wounded. The officer is critical,” Singh said.
India will lodge a protest with Pakistan over the incident, another senior security official said.
The Pakistan military later issued a statement labeling the Indian accusation “ludicrous and fabricated,” and saying that there was firing from the Indian side. It said Pakistani border guards did not return the fire.
The Pakistan Army said. “The reality is totally different. Two BSF posts located north of Najwal village in Indian Kashmir fired seven illuminating rounds followed by light machine gun and small arms fire, which continued intermittently till 0320 a.m.,” it said. “Pakistani Rangers did not fire a single shot.” The Pakistani statement said its troops had asked the BSF about the cause of the firing and had been told that the Indian forces had suspected “some movement.”
The statement added that the Pakistani troops had asked to meet with their Indian counterparts to inquire into the incident. It said that Pakistan had previously lodged protests over firing by Indian forces at the frontier.
A truce has been working well since it came into effect in November 2003 as part of peace moves between the two nuclear-armed rivals, and violations have been a rarity.
The BSF troops were wounded when their patrol took fire after challenging suspected separatist militants trying to sneak into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani sector, the Indian security official said.
“The small arms fire came from across the border. We are yet not sure whether it was militant fire or Pakistani troops,” K. Srinivasan, a BSF intelligence official, told Reuters by phone.
The shooting took place near the Akhnoor sector, 350 km south of Srinagar. Hundreds of people were killed on both sides of the Kashmir frontier before the 2003 truce as the armies of India and Pakistan engaged in daily artillery duels and small arms clashes.
