Pakistan, India blame each other for Kashmir fighting
Source: CBS
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and India traded fresh accusations of cross-border fire in Kashmir on Tuesday, a day after top officials discussed ways of de-escalating tensions over the disputed Himalayan region.
Lt. Col. Manish Mehta, an Indian army spokesman, said Pakistani soldiers fired mortars at Indian army positions. Indian soldiers “appropriately responded to the unprovoked cease-fire violations,” he said. The Pakistani military said its troops responded to “unprovoked” Indian fire, which continued for two hours.
Pakistani National Security Adviser Nasser Khan Janjua briefly spoke with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on Monday, three officials in Islamabad said, the first such high-level contact in weeks. The three officials, including a close aide to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
Tensions have soared between the two nuclear-armed rivals since a Sept. 18 militant attack in Kashmir that killed 19 Indian soldiers. The mountainous region is divided between Indian and Pakistani-controlled zones, but both countries claim Kashmir in its entirety and have fought two wars over it.
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pakistan-india-blame-each-other-for-kashmir-fighting/
India has started constructing underground bunkers along its frontier with Pakistan in Kashmir in the past two weeks, amid growing fears the nuclear-armed rivals are preparing for a major escalation in conflict.The fortification work comes as troops on the Indian side told the Telegraph that cross-border gunfire in northern Kashmir now occurs “every night”.
Work on the bunkers began after a deadly militant attack on India’s Uri army base in north Kashmir on September 18, which killed 19 soldiers and provoked massive public anger in India. But a visit by the Telegraph to a military checkpoint near Uri in Indian-controlled Kashmir revealed the country’s army has quietly but decisively bolstered its fortifications along the “Line of Control”.
The timing of the new fortifications indicate India’s military either planned or expected an increase in hostilities more than a week before launching its “surgical strikes” last Thursday.
At the remote border outpost, Indian troops from the 116th Infantry Brigade said exchanges of fire at night have already grown so intense and frequent since the Uri attack on September 18 that “snap shots” are fired across the Line of Control every night.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/04/india-builds-underground-bunkers-on-kashmir-frontier-as-border-c/
