Firing breaks lull in Kashmir tensions

A Pakistani soldier keeps watch along the tense Line of Control that divides Kashmir

JAMMU, Kashmir (Reuters) -- Indian and Pakistani forces traded fire across their tense border in disputed Kashmir, breaking a lull that lasted several days, Indian police said Tuesday.

The exchange between the nuclear-capable foes began late on Monday and ended on Tuesday morning.

It came as police said three people died overnight in rebel-related violence in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where authorities said 21 people -- including eight children -- were killed just a day earlier.

India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since independence in 1947, have massed close to a million troops along their border in their largest military build-up in 15 years.

While fears of a fourth war have eased somewhat, the hostile neighbors have engaged in nearly daily fire across their border since an attack on the Indian parliament last month.

New Delhi blames the suicide attack on Pakistan-based militants fighting in Kashmir.

India says it will not withdraw its forces till Pakistan shuts down the militant groups it accuses of driving a rebellion in Indian Kashmir and attacking its forces elsewhere.

Police said the latest dead included two Kashmiri separatists belonging to the banned Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad who were killed by security forces in the Jammu district of the Indian state.

"Both (of the dead) were Pakistani nationals," deputy police inspector general Abdul Rashid told Reuters.

A Pakistani man was seriously wounded when Indian forces opened fire across the border into his village, Pakistani army officials said on Tuesday.

The man was wounded by Indian machine gun fire into Kachi Mand village late on Monday, officials said. The village is less than a kilometer (half a mile) from the border and 30 km (20 miles) north of the town of Sialkot, in Pakistan's Punjab province.

Police said Pakistani troops opened mortar and heavy machine gun fire overnight along the ceasefire line or Line of Control dividing Indian-controlled Kashmir from the Pakistani-administered section.

"After a few days' lull in the area, Pakistani troops suddenly opened mortar and heavy machine gun fire," a senior police official said.

"Our troops fired back and the exchange continued until the morning (on Tuesday)."

A frontline Kashmir rebel group, meanwhile, said that only a dialogue involving India, Pakistan and Kashmiris could lead to resolution of the dispute over the Himalayan region, where tens of thousands of people have died since the revolt against Indian rule erupted in 1989.

"Talks should involve all the three parties, India, Pakistan and Kashmiris," Saif-ul-Islam, commander in chief of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, said in an article in the Urdu language weekly Chattan newspaper.