ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Pakistani army on Wednesday protested to India over the killing of one of its soldiers in Kashmir, the fifth fatality this year in heightened hostilities that have raised concerns about ceasefire violations between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Indian troops shot dead the soldier at a position called Kundi during firing from the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Himalayan territory, Pakistan's army said in a statement.
Two Pakistani and two Indian soldiers were killed early this month in the worst outbreak of violence in Kashmir since India and Pakistan agreed a ceasefire nearly a decade ago. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over the region both nations claim.
Following public and media anger at the alleged decapitation of one Indian soldier, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there could be "no business as usual" with Pakistan, and the army chief said his commanders should retaliate to provocation.
Despite the heated rhetoric, government spokesmen on both sides have insisted the deaths will not derail talks meant to improve relations and experts say an escalation is unlikely.
Pakistan's government is fighting for survival over corruption charges and its response has been less fiery than India's to the tensions on the border.
The Pakistani army director of military operations said he would call his Indian counterpart on Wednesday to complain about the latest killing. India's army spokesman confirmed the call took place on a hotline set up to help defuse tensions, but did not give details of the conversation.
India did not confirm the killing but said if a soldier had died it could have been from Indian gunfire in response to shots from Pakistan.
"If any Pakistani soldier has been killed, it may have been in retaliatory firing. Our soldiers do not cross the LoC," army chief Gen. Bikram Singh told reporters. The latest skirmish followed a warning by Singh on Tuesday that he expected his commanders to respond aggressively to "provocation and fire".
Singh spoke during a visit to the family of Lance Naik Hemraj, a soldier the Indian army says was decapitated by Pakistani soldiers last week. The reported mutilation triggered public and media outrage in India and unusually strong language from the government and army.
SENIOR CITIZENS TURNED BACK
A new visa regime that was hailed as a sign of thawing ties before the latest fighting appeared to have been affected by the tension. Pakistani senior citizens were turned away at a border post the first day the scheme was to come into effect.
A senior Indian home ministry official said the visa scheme had been "put on hold owing to technical issues".
In a sign of the emotion the attacks have evoked in India, nine Pakistani hockey players who were signed up to play in a private league were sent home following protests.
India-Pakistan ties had improved after nose-diving in 2008 when gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai in a three-day rampage India blamed on a Pakistani militant group.
India blames the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group for that attack and says it enjoys official protection in Pakistan. Pakistan denies supporting the group. Indian officials have accused the LeT of stirring up the recent trouble on the border, a claim denied by its founder, Hafez Saeed.
"Resort to the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy is short-sighted," India's ambassador to the United Nations, H.S. Puri, on Tuesday told the U.N. Security Council, which is currently headed by Pakistan. "Those who play with the sword, shall also perish by it."
Firing and small skirmishes are common along the internationally recognized 740-km (460-mile) LoC despite the ceasefire that was agreed in 2003.
The Indian army this week released photographs of landmines it said were laid by Pakistan and found in Indian territory. The army said there had been an increase in the number of mines found in recent months.
(Additional reporting by Satarupa Bhattacharjya, Annie Banerji and Frank Jack Daniel in New Delhi and Ashok Pahalwan in Jammu; Editing by John Chalmers)
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Pakistan protests to India over Kashmir killing
Dengan url
http://intelligenceofchildren.blogspot.com/2013/01/pakistan-protests-to-india-over-kashmir.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Pakistan protests to India over Kashmir killing
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Pakistan protests to India over Kashmir killing
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar