India will hit back if Pakistan attacks positions

Indian soldiers move towards the border areas of Indian Kashmir

NEW DELHI, India -- India has said it will retaliate if Pakistani troops attack its frontier positions as the neighbors traded heavy fire for a third straight day.

Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters late Sunday that "retaliatory fire assaults ... shall be conducted every time any such incident is committed by Pakistan" against Indian border targets.

The warning followed a cabinet security meeting held after Pakistani and Indian soldiers engaged in gunfire for a third day on Sunday along the line of control dividing disputed Kashmir. Each side accused the other of starting the bombardment.

India said it would place paramilitary forces guarding the border under the command of the army, and the coast guard under command of the navy. Singh said the changes would better unify India's border security forces.

Asked if India was preparing for war with its nuclear-capable neighbor, Singh said: "You are reading what you have to read, I do what I have to do." Most Indian analysts, however, expect New Delhi to give U.S. diplomacy a chance to settle the row.

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The latest rise in tensions between the two countries follows an attack on an Indian army camp in the Kashmiri town of Kaluchak last Tuesday, which killed more than 30 people and put pressure on New Delhi to take military action against Pakistan.

India blames suspected separatist Pakistan-based militants for the attack.

New Delhi over the weekend asked Pakistan's high commissioner to leave the country for an indefinite period of time.

Pakistan said it "noted with disappointment" India's decision to ask Ashraf Jehangir Kazi to leave, adding that it will only aggravate the situation.

Weekend clashes

Fierce gunfire across the India-Pakistan border and attacks by militants killed more than a dozen people in disputed Kashmir over the weekend, including four Indian soldiers.

India and Pakistan routinely fire at each other across the frontier, but Indian analysts say the current crisis is the worst since an 11-week border conflict in Kashmir in 1999, which nearly developed into war.

India accuses Islamabad of arming and training Pakistan-based militant groups but Pakistan denies the charges, saying it only provides moral and diplomatic support to Kashmiri separatists.

The United States and other countries have voiced concerns that a fourth war could break out between the rivals. Two of their previous wars have been fought over divided Kashmir, which they both claim.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca visited both countries last week, urging restraint and the resumption of dialogue.

But there is growing criticism inside India of U.S. support for Pakistan.

Demonstrators gathered Sunday around the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, accusing the United States of double standards in its war on terrorism.

"When a terrorist attack happens against them, they destroy the whole of Afghanistan and the terrorism hidden there," one demonstrator said.

"When a terrorist attack happens against India, then they support Pakistan."

The upsurge in violence has forced thousands of Indian villagers to flee their homes along the line of control that divides territories administered by India and Pakistan, according to local reports.

More than a dozen Islamic groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India since the militant insurgency began in 1989.

Since a mid-December attack on India's parliament that India blames on Pakistani-based Muslim militants, the two countries have massed several hundred thousand troops along their border.

The heightened tensions have caused international concern because both countries have successfully tested nuclear weapons.

-- CNN New Delhi Bureau Chief Satinder Bindra contributed to this report.