Two suspected rebels, soldier killed in Kashmir
Srinagar, India - Two suspected rebels and an Indian soldier were killed on Tuesday in Kashmir along the de facto border with Pakistan, where the two sides traded fire for a second day.
Indian Army spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said Indian soldiers exchanged fire with unknown combatants as they tried to cross the Line of Control (LoC) into India’s Jammu and Kashmir state.
“Two bodies and three weapons were recovered from the site of the firing,” Kalia said.
In a separate incident an Indian soldier shot and killed his senior officer at a frontier post in Uri following a dispute between the two, Kalia said.
An investigation by the army and police is under way.
Pakistani officials meanwhile said that at least two civilians were killed and 11 others wounded in cross-border firing by Indian soldiers.
“A man and woman were martyred and seven others were wounded in firing by Indian troops in Sumahni sector,” local government official Chaudhry Guftar told AFP.
Pakistan government official Raja Arshad said four people were also injured when another volley of shots were fired across the border into Nakyal sector.
Indian soldier, young girl killed
On Monday, Indian Army said one of its soldiers and a young girl were killed during a skirmish along the border.
Col Kalia said a soldier died when a mortar fired from Pakistan-controlled territory landed on a bunker, sparking fierce retaliatory fire.
An Indian police officer said an eight year old girl was also killed in an exchange of fire across the Line of Control, and her mother was seriously injured.
The tit-for-tat exchange came after India justified firing a barrage that saw four Pakistani soldiers killed on Sunday, saying it had the right to retaliate over ‘ceasefire violations’ in the Kashmir region.
The military heads of India and Pakistan spoke by phone after Islamabad accused New Delhi of bombing one of its military vehicles on Sunday, killing four of its troops in its part of Kashmir.