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Pak accuses India of
heightening tension

Pakistan accused arch rival India on Tuesday of heightening tension along a military control line in Kashmir, where both sides have reported cross-border shelling in recent days.

A Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters that Pakistan was seeking to lower the tension and was keeping a United Nations military observers' group in the area informed of 'Indian violations'.

"There is escalation of tension along the Line of Control as you have seen regular reports on that," he said.

"We have always maintained that there should be de-escalation and lowering of tension because escalation can only aggravate the situation, (and) will solve nothing," he said.

His comments came two days after Indian and Pakistani armies accused each other of launching a cross-border attack in Kashmir and each side reported killing the other's soldiers.

"We keep the situation on our border and on the Line of Control under keen vigilance," the spokesman said. "We are fully prepared to deter any aggressive designs."

Peace talks between India and Pakistan have remained deadlocked after clashes in Kashmir brought them to the brink of a fourth war last year.

India has rejected repeated offers by Pakistan's military government to resume the dialogue, saying Islamabad must first stop "cross-border terrorism" in the shape of sending guerrillas into Indian-ruled Kashmir.

Pakistan denies the charge and says it only gives moral and political support to Kashmiri "freedom-fighters".

Both sides regularly accuse each other of shelling across the 750-km LoC, which stands between their armies, but Saturday's cross-border attack was one of the most serious this year.

The Pakistani army said it had killed five Indian soldiers while repulsing the attack on a forward post and that only three of its own soldiers were wounded.

But India said it had killed at least a dozen Pakistani soldiers and wounded several others in the clash in Rajaouri district, some 176 km north of Jammu, the winter capital of Kashmir.

India rules about 45 per cent and Pakistan over a third of Kashmir, over which the two countries have fought two of their three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947. The remainder of the region is held by China.

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