Uri Attack Issues: Indian and Pakistani troops exchange fire in Kashmir

Indian and Pakistani troops were firing at each other in disputed Kashmir on Monday, as Indian troops searched the site of a gunbattle where an Indian paramilitary soldier was killed.

Lt. Col. Manish Mehta, an Indian military spokesman, said Pakistani troops fired without provocation using small arms and mortar shells in the Poonch sector of the Line of Control separating the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled areas of Kashmir.

Pakistan’s army said in a statement that its troops were reacting to unprovoked firing.

Both sides said the exchange of fire was continuing.

Meanwhile, Indian authorities said they were seeking an Indian army camp which was attacked by militants who fired firearms and grenades, killing one soldier and wounding another.

Police officer Syed Javeid Mujataba Gillani said it was not immediately known whether the militants attempted to enter the camp in the garrison town of Baramulla, 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Srinagar, the principal city in India’s portion of Kashmir. The camp is the local headquarters of a counterinsurgency military unit.

Sunday’s attack came three days after the Indian army said it had carried out a “surgical strike” in the area and destroyed “terrorist launching pads” used by militants with support from Pakistan.

The Indian assault followed a lethal rebel strike in Kashmir on another Indian base.

India accuses Pakistan of training and arming insurgents a charge Pakistan denies.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan. The longtime rivals have fought two wars for control of the Himalayan territory since British colonialists left in 1947. Both claim Kashmir in its entirety.