SRINAGAR, India: Pakistani troops killed two Indian soldiers in disputed Kashmir on Monday and mutilated their bodies, India’s army said, calling it a “despicable act.”
In a statement, the army said Pakistan’s border force attacked a patrol operating between two border posts on the de facto frontier known as the Line of Control in the remote Himalayan region.
“In an unsoldierly act by the Pak Army the bodies of two of our soldiers in the patrol were mutilated,” the statement said, warning of an “appropriate response.”
It also accused Pakistan of what it called “unprovoked” rocket and mortar firing across the heavily militarized Line of Control but gave no further details.
Army spokesman N. N. Joshi said the victims were a junior officer and a border guard.
Another guard from India’s Border Security Force was injured in the initial firing from Pakistan, Joshi said.
Pakistani denial
The Pakistani army denied committing any cease-fire violation along the Line of Control. It said in a statement that Indian allegations of mutilating Indian soldiers’ bodies were also false.
“Pakistani army is a highly professional force and shall never disrespect a soldier, even an Indian,” it said.
In the past, both countries have accused the other of initiating border skirmishes leading to the deaths of soldiers and civilians on both sides.
Last year, Indian and Pakistani soldiers engaged in some of the worst fighting along the Line of Control since the two nations agreed to a cease-fire accord in 2003. India accused attackers from the Pakistani side of Kashmir of entering the Indian-held portion and mutilating the body of one of three slain Indian soldiers.
India and Pakistan have a long history of bitter relations over Kashmir, a Himalayan territory claimed by both. They have fought two of their three wars over the region since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
The Line of Control is guarded by the Indian and Pakistani armies and divides the two parts of Kashmir. Each country also has a separate paramilitary border force guarding the lower-altitude frontier separating Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab.
