JAMMU, India — India accused old enemy Pakistan of sending troops across the heavily militarized line dividing the disputed region of Kashmir on Tuesday, and said two of its soldiers were killed and one wounded in a half-hour gunfight. The body of one of the slain soldiers was found “badly mutilated" in a forested area of the Himalayan territory, said Rajesh K. Kalia, spokesman for the Indian army's Northern Command. A Pakistani army spokesman denied what he said were Indian allegations of “unprovoked firing" across the Line of Control (LoC) between the nuclear-armed neighbors. He branded India's allegations “propaganda" to divert attention away from a clash along the LoC two days earlier in which Pakistan had said one of its soldiers was killed after an Indian incursion. India denied its troops crossed the line. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence in 1947, two of them over Kashmir. Firing and small skirmishes between the two countries are common along the LoC despite slowly improving ties in recent years. The Indian army says eight of its soldiers were killed in 2012, in 75 incidents. Away from the border, ties seem to be better. Pakistan's cricket team completed a two-week tour of India on Sunday, the first time it has visited in five years. Kalia said Tuesday's “intrusion" about 600 meters across the LoC in Mendhar - about 220 km (140 miles) north of the Indian city of Jammu - marked “a significant escalation ... of ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts supported by the Pakistan Army". “Pakistan army troops, having taken advantage of thick fog and mist in the forested area, were moving towards (their) own posts when an alert area domination patrol spotted and engaged the intruders," he said. “The firefight between Pakistan and own troops continued for approximately half an hour, after which the intruders retreated back towards their side of the Line of Control." He said India would take up the issue with Pakistan at a military flag meeting and also at a diplomatic level. In 1999, Pakistan-backed Islamist infiltrators occupied the Kargil heights in north of Indian Kashmir, and India lost hundreds of troops before re-occupying the mountains after bitter fighting that almost triggered a fourth war. Indian military officials say the frequency of cross-border clashes has increased in recent weeks, with at least half a dozen ceasefire violations over the past week alone. — Reuters
