Pakistan denies clash with Indian troops along LoC

Pakistan has denied an Indian claim that a group of Pakistani troops crossed into occupied Kashmir on Monday and shot dead an Indian soldier, sparking a gun battle.

“I don’t have any information about this incident right now,” chief of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Athar Abbas told AFP in Islamabad.

Earlier, an Indian amry spokesmen told AFP in New Delhi: “Between 10 and 12 Pakistani soldiers crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and entered the Kupwara sector (in Indian-occupied Kashmir), and after a verbal duel, they shot dead a soldier,” Indian army spokesman Anil Kumar Mathur told AFP.

He claimed that the killing triggered an exchange of fire, which was continuing into the evening.

According to the spokesman, the soldiers crossed 200 metres (yards) into Indian-occupied territory to “object to the setting up of a post by Indian army soldiers.”

The incident was in a mountainous area north of occupied Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar.

Pakistan and India agreed to a ceasefire in November 2003 along the LoC, and the two sides launched a peace process in January 2004.