SRINAGAR (AFP)-An intense artillery duel has erupted between Indian and Pakistani gunners in the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir.
At least one Indian soldier was killed in the shelling, which began Sunday night in the southern zone of India-administered Kashmir and spread to other areas of the Himalayan region.
The rival armies were trading heavy-caliber shells in southern, northern and northwestern frontier zones along the Line of Control (LoC), which separates the two sectors of divided Kashmir.
Pakistani shells also rained down on the Lam sector of southern Nawshera town, where eight Indian soldiers were killed when Pakistani troops allegedly overran their frontier post. Islamabad has denied the charge.
An Indian military source here said: "We also have reports of light arms exchanges" in almost a dozen sectors.
The source, however, described the close-quarter combat as "sporadic" and confined to the heavily militarized LoC. India holds the southern two-thirds of Kashmir and Pakistan the northern third of the disputed territory.
The two countries have fought three wars since their independence in 1947, two of them over Kashmir. The two South Asian rivals came dangerously close to a fourth war last summer when India launched a full-scale military assault to dislodge Pakistan-backed armed forces from strategic heights in Indian Kashmir.
A Muslim independence campaign in the Indian zone of Himalayan Kashmir has left more than 25,000 people dead since 1989.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the fighters. Islamabad denies the charge but offers open diplomatic and moral support to what it asserts is the Kashmiris' legitimate struggle for self-rule.
