Pakistan denies Indian claim of border firing

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan military on Tuesday denied Indian army's claim that Pakistani forces have attacked an Indian post and killed five soldiers in the disputed Kashmir region.

Indian defence officials said Pakistani troops attacked an Indian post along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch sector in the disputed Kashmir region late Monday night, killing five Indian soldiers.

Indian media quoted defence sources as saying on Tuesday said the Pakistani soldiers intruded into the Indian part of Kashmir midnight and ambushed the Sarla post on the Indian side of the LoC, which divides Pakistan and India in Kashmir.

Pakistan army rejected the Indian claim.

Military officials told media that Pakistani forces had not been involved in any firing at the Indian post.

"No such incident has taken place on the Line of Control," an official with the army's Inter-Services Public Relations said.

Pakistan declared a unilateral ceasefire along the LoC in 2003, which was positively responded by India.

Guns had been relatively silenced since then, however, border troops sometimes trade fires. Both sides routinely accuse each other of violations.

The LoC escalation started in January this year when skirmishes between armies of two nuclear neighbors claimed lives of five troopers, two from India and three from Pakistan.

Kashmir, the region divides India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from British in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir.

The latest incident comes at a time when the new government in Pakistan is trying to normalize relations with India.

Officials said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to meet his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September.

Pakistan said last week that it has proposed dates to India for resumption of the official dialogue and awaits Indian response.