Indian and Pakistani soldiers engaged in a firefight and exchanged shelling along the heavily militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir, resulting in the death of an Indian border guard, as per officials on Thursday.
Officials in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir reported that Pakistani soldiers fired mortars and machine guns at border posts in the southern Jammu area on Wednesday night, describing the attack as “unprovoked.”
The Indian Border Security Force released a statement stating that their soldiers responded appropriately and that one of their border guards lost his life.
The clash came to an end early on Thursday. Pakistan has not yet responded to the incident. Both countries frequently accuse each other of initiating border skirmishes in the Himalayan region, which they both claim in its entirety.
Last month, two Indian border guards and three civilians were wounded during fighting along the frontier with Pakistan.
India and Pakistan have a long-standing history of acrimonious relations over Kashmir. They have fought two out of their three wars since 1947 over their conflicting claims to the region. In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, militants have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989. In 2003, the two nations agreed to a cease-fire, which has mostly held despite intermittent skirmishes.
The disputed frontier between the nuclear-armed countries includes a rugged and mountainous stretch called the Line of Control, spanning 740 kilometers (460 miles), that is heavily guarded by their respective armies.
Additionally, both countries have separate paramilitary border forces responsible for guarding their well-defined, lower-altitude 200-kilometer (125-mile) boundary separating Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab.
In 2021, after months of nearly daily fighting that claimed numerous lives on both sides in Kashmir, the two nations reaffirmed their 2003 cease-fire agreement.
