Indian firing kills two Pakistani nationals: official

Pakistani officials said early Monday that Indian firing had killed at least two Pakistani people and wounded nearly a dozen others.

The cross-border shelling started on Sunday and continued overnight along the working boundary, authorities in the area said.

The latest escalation of tension at the Shakargarh sector in Punjab province was witnessed after days of a lull in exchange of firing.

Pakistani and Indian border officials agreed in their talks in New Delhi last month to implement the 2003 ceasefire.

The paramilitary force Punjab Rangers said that the Indian Border Forces "violated the ceasefire and resorted to unprovoked firing at the civilian population" along the working boundary.

The injured were taken to a military hospital in Sialkot, a main city near the border and private hospitals.

District Coordination Officer Najaf Iqbal said the local authorities had also set a special medical camp to treat the injured.

On their part, Indian officials also talked about the "ceasefire violations by Pakistan."

Pakistani and Indian border troops in the disputed Kashmir region occasionally trade fire despite the ceasefire agreement. An escalation has been seen in recent months, causing casualties on both sides.

As tension fast grew, the two countries cancelled talks of senior security officials in August. National security adviser-level talks were scheduled to be held in New Delhi to discuss antiterrorism cooperation.

Pakistan wanted a wide-ranging agenda to be discussed that also included dispute over Kashmir; however, India insisted that the talks would only focus on terrorism.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his India counterpart Narendra Modi, who met in Ufa, Russia, in July on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, had decided that the security advisers should meet to explore option to reduce tensions. Enditem