Pakistan, India troops trade fire
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Aug 19, (Agencies): Pakistani officials say the country’s forces and troops from neighboring India have traded fire in the divided region of Kashmir, killing at least one Pakistani villager.
Javed Budhanvi, a minister in Pakistan’s part of Kashmir, said on Wednesday that schools were forced to shut down following India’s shelling in the Nakial sector on Tuesday. He says hundreds of villagers fled to safer places.
Lt Col Manish Mehta, an Indian army spokesman, blamed the Pakistani army for “unprovoked firing” and said their troops returned fire.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, two rival nucleararmed nations, both of which are claiming the entire region.
The two have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, though a 2003 cease-fire has largely held despite small but regular firefights.
Pakistan invited separatists from India’s disputed Kashmir region for a meeting in a move that risks further straining efforts to restart a peace dialogue ahead of a rare meeting between top security officials from the nuclear-armed nations. India called off peace talks with Pakistan a year ago after its neighbour consulted the separatists before a meeting between their foreign secretaries. At the time, India accused Pakistan of interfering in its domestic affairs.
Hardline Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani is among the leaders invited to the Pakistan High Commission on Aug 23, the day talks between the security officials are due to start, Ayaz Akbar, a spokesman for the separatists, said.
“This is deliberate attempt to irritate India,” said S. Chandrasekharan, director of the South Asia Analysis Group in New Delhi.
Manzoor Ali Memon, a spokesman for the Pakistani embassy, confirmed the invitation and declined to comment further.
Earlier Indian governments had grudgingly tolerated meetings between Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists, but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, elected last year, signalled he would not.
Majority-Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan have fought three wars since becoming separate nations in 1947, two of them over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.
Modi has taken a tougher approach to Pakistan and clashes on the disputed border have intensified.
Indian and Pakistani troops traded gunfire and mortar rounds along their frontier earlier this week, killing eight people.
Hopes for warmer ties rose last month when Modi and his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, met on the sidelines of a summit in Russia and agreed that their national security advisers would hold talks.
A spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.
United Nations SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday voiced alarm at the latest upsurge in violence along the disputed border of India and Pakistan in Kashmir and urged restraint on the part of both governments.
Officials said on Sunday that Indian and Pakistani troops intensified firing along their disputed frontier in Kashmir, killing at least eight people and wounding 14.
“(Ban) expresses serious concern about the recent escalation of violence along the Line of Control between India and Pakistan, which reportedly resulted in a number of casualties on both sides, including civilians,” the UN press office said in a statement.
It added that Ban “calls upon the governments of India and Pakistan to exercise maximum restraint and take all feasible steps to ensure the protection of civilians.”
The statement noted that the UN chief urged India and Pakistan to resolve their differences through dialogue.
Frontier clashes have intensified in recent months and the latest violence will put more strain on ties between the nuclear-armed rivals, who are scheduled to hold talks between top security officials on Aug 23-24 in New Delhi.
The UN statement said Ban welcomed that scheduled meeting.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two over Kashmir, and relations chilled again after the election of the right-winger Narendra Modi as Indian prime minister last year.