NEW DELHI: Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar appeared on Indian television on Wednesday and issued a firm denial and criticised the statements by authorities in Delhi about the alleged killing of two Indian soldiers in Kashmir.

“Let me just say that we are a bit appalled at some statements that are coming in from India because the government of Pakistan has absolutely rejected that any such incident took place,” she told India's CNN-IBN network.

“It is not Pakistan’s policy to not observe the ceasefire on LoC,” she added.

Ms Khar said Pakistan tempered its language after the death of one of its soldiers on Sunday in a border skirmish and India should have followed suit.

“We believe that these issues must be dealt with in a responsible manner,” she said.

“We can ask a third party to do investigation on this, you know that UN military observers exist, we can call them.

“It is not Pakistan's policy to do tit-for-tat... We must not all go back to having a go at each other.”

Some analysts have suggested that militants could have been involved.

Asked who was responsible for killing the Indian soldiers, Pakistani political analyst Hasan Askari told AFP: “It's very difficult to suggest.

It could be militants, it could be the Pakistan army. Indians are talking of a lot of brutality on the dead bodies - if that is true then perhaps the probability of militants is quite high.”

“We can confirm that one of the Indian soldiers was beheaded by the Pakistani army,” Indian army spokesman Jagdeep Dahiya told AFP.

“It was a dastardly act as they have taken away the head.”

Senior military officers who visited the site of the attack said an attempt had also been made to remove the head of the second soldier.

“There was a slash on the neck of the second body,” one officer said in New Delhi on the condition he is not identified by rank or name.

In a sign of a desire for revenge among troops on the ground, the officer said it was “now a matter of prestige, the battalion has to regain its honour”.—AFP