Fresh firing by Pakistani troops on Indian posts

Breaching the ceasefire again, Pakistani troops opened fire on the Indian posts in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch sector on Thursday, army officials said.

Army sources told IANS that Pakistani troops opened heavy gunfire on Indian posts in Battal area in Poonch, about 230 km north of Jammu, Thursday evening. The firing lasted for half an hour.

"The Indian army offered a calibrated response," an army officer said.

There were no casualties on this side and the officer had no idea as to what happened on the other side of the Line of Control (LoC), which divides Jammu and Kashmir between the two.

The latest firing - the third time Pakistani troops have violated the ceasefire in Poonch district adjacent to the LOC - comes two days after they killed and badly mutilated the bodies of the two Indian soldiers.

India has taken strong exception to the killing and conveyed its strong reaction to Pakistan, which had denied that its soldiers had crossed the LoC and killed the Indian soldiers.

Pakistan had proposed to have a probe into the incidents of ceasefire violations by the United Nations Military Observation Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), stationed in Srinagar and Rawalpindi. This has been rejected by India.