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India, Pakistan military trade fire on Kashmir LoC

Xinhua, August 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

The military of India and Pakistan Thursday exchanged fire on Line of Control (LoC) in restive Kashmir by targeting each other's positions, officials said.Troopers on the two sides of divide fired small arms towards each other in frontier Jammu, Rajouri and Poonch districts, south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

"Pakistan army is resorting to unprovoked cease-fire violations unabated," Lt Col Manish Mehta, Jammu based Indian military spokesman said. Last night Pakistan troops opened small arms fire in Krishna Ghati (Poonch) , Bhimber Gali (Rajouri) and Pallanwala (Jammu) sectors, and the intermittent fire continued for almost an hour at different times in these forward sectors.

According to Mehta, Indian troops deployed in these sectors retaliated appropriately to the firings from Pakistan side.

"No casualty or damage has been reported in the exchange," Mehta said.

Both New Delhi and Islamabad accuse each other of resorting to unprovoked firings and violating cease-fire agreements. And both sides maintain that their troops gave befitting reply to the other side.

The troops of India and Pakistan intermittently exchange fire on 720 km-long Line of Control (LoC) and 198 km International Border in Kashmir, despite an agreement in 2003 to observe cease- fire. Though some violations have been reported on both sides, the cease-fire however remains in effect.

LoC is a defacto border, that divides Kashmir into India and Pakistan controlled parts.

The two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir and both claim the territory in full.India and Pakistan share strained relations over host of issues including Kashmir.

The first-ever security level talks between the two countries is scheduled to be held on Aug. 23 in New Delhi.

Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz will be meeting India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

The prime ministers of two countries agreed for these talks last month during their meeting in the Russian city of Ufa.

The cease-fire violations on LoC and border in Kashmir are likely to figure in the agenda for forthcoming talks. Endi