ISLAMABAD: Pakistan lodged a formal protest with India on Monday over what it said was an unprovoked attack on a border post that killed one Pakistani soldier and wounded another.
Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged fire on Sunday along the disputed border in Hajipir sector of divided Kashmir, with each side blaming the other for the flare-up.
Pakistan said Indian troops crossed the Line of Control and stormed the Sawan Patra military post, an accusation denied by the Indian army.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said it had handed the Indian deputy high commissioner a “protest note on the unprovoked Indian attack”.
“The Indian government was strongly urged to take appropriate measures to avoid recurrence of such incidents in future,” it said in a statement.
Indian army spokesman Col Jagadish Dahiya had claimed that Indian troops had not crossed the LoC. “However, there was a ceasefire violation by Pakistan. Our troops retaliated by firing,” he alleged.
An Indian army spokesman in Indian-held Srinagar, Col Brijesh Pandey, accused the Pakistani military of firing mortar bombs into a village in the Uri district, which faces Haji Pir.
India suspended peace talks with Pakistan after gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai in November 2008 – attacks blamed by New Delhi and Washington on Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Peace talks resumed in February 2011 and both sides have made some progress on less contentious issues such as trade, but remain deadlocked over Kashmir.
