SRINAGAR: An Indian soldier was killed when Pakistani troops fired gunshots and mortar shells across the border in northern Kashmir after a brief lull, said an Indian official.

Border Security Force official D. Parekh said the Indian soldier was killed instantly on Monday following fresh exchanges of fire between the two countries along their tense border in disputed Kashmir.

“A BSF (Border Security Force) constable who was injured in the firing from Pakistan in Hiranagar sector this afternoon has died,” Rajesh Kumar, inspector general of police for the region, told AFP.

Soldiers of both nations have fired across the border at different places for nearly six days in Kashmir, the Himalayan region that both countries claim in its entirety.

Around 1,500 people in border villages on the Indian side have been evacuated or have fled their homes.

Parekh said the firing halted briefly on Sunday before resuming Monday.

Kumar said the Indian side retaliated after coming under fire from Pakistani rockets in the Samba sector, around 350 km south of the region’s main city of Srinagar.

Tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours escalated last week when an Indian border guard and two Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed during exchanges of heavy fire in the same area.