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India Says Pakistan Troops Fired Across Border In India's Jammu
JAMMU, India, May 20 (Islamonline & News Agencies) - Pakistani troops Sunday fired across a border fence being erected in the Jammu region of Indian-administered Kashmir and detonated bombs in what Indian officials claimed to be an attempt to disrupt the work, news agencies said.
There was no confirmation of the report from Pakistan.
An Indian Border Security Force (BSF) official was reported by AFP to have said that the incident occurred in the Akhnoor sector, 70 kilometers (43 miles) west of Kashmir's winter state capital Jammu.
"The BSF retaliated and the exchange of fire continued intermittently for the full day on Sunday. There were no casualties except some village houses were hit by Pakistani bullets," the official said.
He added that 20 pillars erected for the fencing project in Ramgarh sector, 55 kilometers south of Jammu, were smashed by Pakistani security forces who triggered two bomb blasts.
An Indian bomb disposal squad defused an improvised explosive device inside a milk can near the border fence, Indian officials told the news agency. The BSF official said the fencing project was underway in different sections of the 187-kilometre Jammu border with Pakistan despite the cross-border shooting.
The fence is being built to check infiltration of Muslim separatists who want independence for predominantly Muslim Kashmir from India and smuggling of weapons from Pakistan, Indian officials said. Indian troops had started to build a fence in 1995, but had to stop work following heavy shelling and firing by Pakistani soldiers from across the border.
A 10-kilometre stretch of the fence has been erected and it is scheduled to be completed within two years. In the past, Pakistan has raised objections to a fence in the Jammu area.
Muslim-majority Kashmir was divided between India and Pakistan in 1947 but remains claimed by both. A great portion of the population favors total independence.
Indian military reaction to a Muslim separatist movement on the Indian side has claimed more than 34,000 lives since 1989, according to Indian figures. Separatist leaders say the death toll is twice as high.
Meanwhile Indian media said it was likely it would extend what it calls a unilateral ceasefire in violence-wracked Kashmir. However, when contacted, the Indian Prime Minister's office refused to confirm or deny the report on the ceasefire which is due to expire at the end of the month.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) said the government was likely to extend it by another three months. The news agency said the decision is to be taken later this week by India's cabinet committee on security, which is chaired by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
The Indian government has called a meeting of its political allies Monday to discuss the issue. India's self-titled unilateral ceasefire was declared six months ago, at the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Muslim separatists have mostly said the initiative was a fraud that Indian army operations continued in the province. The Muslim fighters have called the Indian initiative a propaganda ploy aimed at winning support of the international community.
On Saturday, India's home and defense ministers Lal Krishna Advani and Jaswant Singh visited Kashmir for the first time.
Advani said the trip was aimed at assessing the situation and enabling the government to take its decisions "correctly and in a manner so as to ensure that both our objectives, namely peace and security, are subserved."
The move has so far failed to stop violence.
Opposition to the so-called ceasefire has been mounting from factions within India's ruling BJP party. Elements of the Indian security forces have reportedly been against its renewal.
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