Friday, September 03, 2010

DTN News: India Accuses Pakistan Of Ceasefire Violation Aimed At Infiltrating Militants Across LoC

DTN News: India Accuses Pakistan Of Ceasefire Violation Aimed At Infiltrating Militants Across LoC
Source: DTN News
(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI, India - September 4, 2010: India’s army accused Pakistan of violating a ceasefire along their militarised border, accusing it of trying to push militants into divided Kashmir under the cover of fire. A defence spokesman said Indian military posts in southern Kashmir came under small arms and mortar fire from across the border in a pre-dawn skirmish with Pakistani troops that lasted around two hours. “Pakistani troops opened unprovoked firing at Indian posts and targeted several positions in Poonch” district, Lieutenant Colonel Biplab Nath said in Indian Kashmir’s winter capital Jammu. “Our soldiers retaliated to the firing,” Nath said, adding there were no casualties on the Indian side in Poonch, a hilly Kashmir district some 240 kilometres northwest of Jammu. The Press Trust of India quoted an Indian commander as saying dozens of mortar shells exploded around Indian posts. “It is ceasefire violation and it was aimed at infiltrating militants into this side of the Line of Control (LoC),” brigadier S. Dua said, referring to a de facto border which divides the Indian and Pakistani zones of Kashmir. India has in the past accused the Pakistani army of providing covering fire for infiltrating militants. Islamabad denies the charge. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the mainly Muslim region of Kashmir, which is held in part by each country but claimed in full by both. They agreed to a ceasefire along the LoC in 2003 and began a peace process in 2004. Since then there have been sporadic clashes with both sides accusing each other of violating the truce. An insurgency against New Delhi’s rule in Indian Kashmir has raged since 1989.
**This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail

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