KL Desk

Srinagar

India and Pakistan traded bitter accusations Wednesday after New Delhi said Pakistani troops had killed two of its soldiers and mutilated their bodies in the territory of Kashmir, a flash point between the two nations since their creation.

Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai summoned the Pakistani High Commissioner and ‘lodged a strong protest’ about what India alleges took place Tuesday, increasing the strain on ties between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

But Pakistan reiterated its denial of the accusations, saying India was trying to distract attention from a clash at the weekend in the Himalayan territory that left a Pakistani soldier dead.

India asserts that Pakistani troops took advantage of thick fog in a wooded area on Tuesday to cross over to its side of the Line of Control, (LoC) the de facto border between the two nations in Kashmir.

The Indian military says one of its routine patrols spotted the Pakistani troops in the Mendhar sector of Poonch district, and a firefight lasting about 30 minutes ensued, during which two Indian soldiers were killed.

The Indian government on Wednesday accused Pakistani troops of subjecting the two soldiers’ bodies to ‘barbaric and inhuman mutilation,’ calling the alleged actions ‘highly provocative.’

A senior Pakistani military official said, though, that Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations had spoken to his Indian counterpart by phone and rejected the allegations that Pakistani troops had crossed the LoC and killed Indian soldiers.”Nothing of this sort happened at all,” said the official.

He suggested India was trying to divert world attention from an outbreak of violence between the two sides on Sunday, the details of which are also highly contested.

In that clash, according to the Pakistani military, Indian troops crossed the LoC and attacked a military post. Pakistani army troops repulsed the attack, but one Pakistani soldier was killed and another critically injured, Pakistan said.

The Indian Defense Ministry, however, said Pakistani troops opened fire unprovoked on Indian posts in the north Uri sector of Kashmir. Indian troops retaliated and forced Pakistani troops to stop firing, the ministry said. It did not immediately report the number of casualties.

The two South Asian neighbors have had a cease-fire along the de facto border since November 2003. But it has been violated repeatedly, with both sides accusing the other of offenses.

Bilateral talks were suspended in 2008 after an attack in Mumbai, India’s most populous city, killed more than 160 people. The negotiations have since resumed.

The conflict over Kashmir dates back to 1947,after Britain relinquished control of the Indian subcontinent, giving birth to modern India and Pakistan.

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