Pakistani, Indian defence officials discuss LoC escalations

Senior Pakistani and Indian military officials Wednesday talked on phone and discussed the current escalation along Line of Control (LoC), which divides the two countries in the disputed Kashmir region, the military said.

The contact was established for the first time after Pakistan accused Indian troops of intrusion into Azad Kashmir and killing its one soldier on Sunday.

On Tuesday Indian authorities also came up with a claim that Pakistani forces entered its occupied part of Kashmir and killed two Indian soldiers.

“Today Pakistan military DGMO (Director General Military Operations) talked to his Indian counterpart in India on hotline,” a Pakistani military official said.

“Pakistan rejected Indian army allegations of cross LoC firing by Pakistani troops and killing any Indian soldier,” the official said.

“Indian authorities were informed that Pakistan has carried out ground verification and checked and found nothing of this sort happened as being alleged by India,” he said.

The Pakistani military official described the Indian claim as ‘mere propaganda by Indian army.’

The official mentioned that Indian troops raided a Pakistani post on Sunday morning in which a Pakistan soldier Naik Aslam was killed. “The martyred solder was buried in his native village in Chakwal (in Punjab province) on Tuesday,” he went on to say.

“Indians are doing this propaganda and trying to divert attention of world from that raid and alleging Pakistan for cross border violation,” the Pakistani official said.

The Indian officials had stated earlier that Pakistani troops sneaked into Indian-held Kashmir and ambushed an army patrol party, killing two Indian soldiers.

They had said the attack took place along the LoC when Pakistanis came about 100 meters into Indian-occupied Kashmir and assaulted the patrol party.

Pakistan and India had declared ceasefire along the LoC in November 2003 and guns had been relatively silent since then.

After years of a lull, the abrupt cross-border tension between the nuclear rivals has raised serious concerns across the world and calls for de-escalation are pouring in from important capitals.

Reports suggest that India on Wednesday lodged a formal protest with Pakistan over the killing of two Indian soldiers at a frontier post in Kashmir allegedly by Pakistani troops, urging Islamabad to immediately investigate the attack.

While summoning Pakistan high commissioner Salman Bashir, Indian foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai said these incidents were “unacceptable” and that Pakistan has to uphold the sanctity of the Line of Control (LoC), the Press Trust of India quoted official sources as saying.

“Two Indian soldiers were killed in the attack and their bodies subjected to barbaric and inhuman mutilation. The government of Pakistan was asked to immediately investigate these actions that are in contravention of international conduct and ensure that these will not recur,” said the sources.

Two Indian soldiers were killed Tuesday at the fence of the LoC in Kashmir’s Poonch district, allegedly by regular troops of Pakistan.

One of the two killed was beheaded and mutilated while the other dead soldier’s body was also mutilated, according to the Indian media reports.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Jan 9 2013. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan, South Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.