2 killed as Indian and Pakistan soldiers clash in Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Pakistani troops killed two Indian soldiers yesterday near the tense disputed border between the nuclear-armed neighbors in Kashmir and one of the bodies was badly mutilated, the Indian army said.
The firefight broke out at about noon yesterday after an Indian patrol discovered Pakistani troops about half a kilometer (1,600 feet) inside Indian territory, army spokesman Rajesh Kalia told AFP.
A ceasefire has been in place along the Line of Control that divides the countries since 2003, but it is periodically violated by both sides and Pakistan said Indian troops killed a Pakistani soldier on Sunday.
“The government of India considers the incident as a provocative action and we condemn it,” said a statement from India’s Defense Ministry over the latest clash. “The government will take up the incident with the Pakistan government.”
Relations between the neighbors had been slowly improving over the last few years following a rupture in their slow-moving peace process after the 2008 attacks on Mumbai, which were blamed by India on Pakistan-based militants.
“There was a firefight with Pakistani troops,” Kalia told AFP from the mountainous Himalayan region, confirming the names of the men as sergeants Hemraj Singh and Sudhakar Singh.
“We lost two soldiers and one of them has been badly mutilated,” he added, declining to give more details on the injuries.
“The intruders were regular (Pakistani) soldiers and they were 400-500 meters (1,300-1,600 feet) inside our territory,” he said of the clash in Mendhar sector, 173 kilometers (107 miles) west by road from the city of Jammu.
In Islamabad, a Pakistan military spokesman denied what he called an “Indian allegation of unprovoked firing”, adding that the Indian account was “propaganda to divert the attention of the world from Sunday’s raid on a Pakistani post”.
Pakistan’s army says Indian troops crossed the Line of Control on Sunday and stormed a military post in an attack that left one Pakistani soldier dead and another injured.