India, Pakistan Troops Exchange Fire

SRINAGAR, India (AP) -- Indian and Pakistani troops were firing at each other in disputed Kashmir on Monday, as Indian troops searched the site of a gunbattle where an Indian paramilitary soldier was killed.

Lt. Col. Manish Mehta, an Indian army spokesman, said Pakistani troops fired without provocation using small arms and mortar shells in the Poonch sector of the Line of Control separating the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir.

Pakistan's army said in a statement that its troops were responding to unprovoked firing by Indian soldiers.

Both sides said the exchange of fire was continuing.

Meanwhile, Indian police said they were searching an Indian army camp that was attacked late Sunday by militants who fired grenades and guns, killing one soldier and wounding another.

Police officer Syed Javeid Mujataba Gillani said it was not immediately known whether the militants tried to enter the camp in the garrison town of Baramulla, 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Srinagar, the main city in India's portion of Kashmir. The camp is the local headquarters of a counterinsurgency military unit.

Sunday's attack came three days after the Indian army said it had carried out a "surgical strike" in the region and destroyed "terrorist launching pads" used by militants with support from Pakistan.

The Indian assault followed a deadly rebel attack on another Indian base in Kashmir. On Sept. 18, suspected rebels using guns and grenades sneaked into an army base in Uri, a town in Indian-controlled Kashmir, and killed at least 18 soldiers.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan, a charge Pakistan denies.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan. The longtime rivals have fought two wars for control of the Himalayan territory since British colonialists left in 1947. Both claim Kashmir in its entirety.

(KA)