Two Indian Soldiers Dead in Cross-Border Exchange of Fire With Pakistani Troops

New Delhi (Sputnik) — "A BSF trooper and an Army personnel were martyred on Jammu Line of Control facing unprovoked Pakistan fire. They were deployed in Mendhar area," said India's Border Security Force. It is said the firing began at 8:30 am as Pakistani forces started firing at Indian posts with rocket launchers and automatic weapons.

​The incident took place a day after Pakistani Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, visited the Line of Control at Haji Pir Sector. "Indian aggression and frustration vents at Pakistani villages along LOC/ Working Boundary, but we must keep our response purely in military domain in accordance with our values," Bajwa said after reviewing the situation at the border.

Last week, as part of confidence building measures and to afford requisite warning, the Pakistani Army had approached the Indian Army through hotline contact and asked to inform ground troops about movement of civil and military enumerators to civilian areas along the Line of Control during second phase of census.

India and Pakistan claim Kashmir to be their territory in the dispute which harks back to the Partition of British India in 1947. Although the two countries have fought three wars since then, the dispute is far from over.