· 12-hour gunbattle rages across Line of Control · Most serious breach yet of five-year truce, says India
Randeep Ramesh in Delhi The Guardian, Wednesday July 30 2008
Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged heavy fire for more than 12 hours across the de facto border in Kashmir, in what the Indian army called the most "serious violation" of the ceasefire agreement signed five years ago.
The killing of an Indian soldier started the overnight gunbattle on the Line of Control, the Indian army claimed, adding that a Pakistani unit "came into Indian territory, fired and then ran back to their side". The gunbattle took place near the Indian-run city of Srinagar.
Colonel Anil Kumar Mathur, the Indian army spokesman, said four Pakistani soldiers were killed along the heavily fortified frontier between Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
"We have been seeing ceasefire violations for some time. This is in fact the ninth ceasefire violation in the last two months," said Col Mathur. "This is also a violation of the sanctity of the Line of Control."
Pakistan denied any of its soldiers were killed. In a statement to Associated Press, military officials in Islamabad blamed the incident on Indian soldiers trying to build a post on Pakistan's side.
The statement said: "On Pakistan's objection, Indian troops opened indiscriminate and unprovoked fire."
Commanders from both sides met on the Line of Control yesterday in an attempt to ease tensions. No further casualties have been reported.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir. The Line of Control has been generally quiet since a 2003 ceasefire agreement, which led to a stuttering peace process between the two rivals.
Analysts believed the Pakistan military may be trying to reclaim "foreign policy" from the civilian government. Samina Ahmed, south Asia project director of the International Crisis Group, said that new initiatives by the elected government in Pakistan appear to have been frustrated by a series of small-scale military crises.
"The new government in Pakistan has been trying a policy of rapprochement with India and it seems that it is being pushed back by the military. The same thing happened with Benazir Bhutto's first government," said Ahmed.
"The idea is to make the civilian government appear weak on national security. It is a very dangerous game that has brought Pakistan to the brink of war before."
The gunbattle in Kashmir comes at a sensitive time in India. The Indian cities of Bengalooru and Ahmedabad witnessed a string of blasts over the weekend for which an Islamist group calling itself the "Indian Mujahideen" took responsibility. As many as 45 people died in Ahmedabad on Saturday, with two killed in Bengalooru on Friday.
Yesterday police found 10 unexploded bombs in the western Indian city of Surat, one of the world's biggest diamond-polishing centres. All were found in densely populated districts.
Afghan intelligence officials stepped up their war of words with Pakistan on Monday, accusing its secret service of training thousands of militants to attack Indian road projects in Afghanistan.
India and Afghanistan had blamed elements inside Pakistan for the suicide bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul earlier this month, which killed 58 people.
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