Indian and Pakistani forces have exchanged fire along the Line of Control (LOC) separating the two countries as the UN calls for “maximum restraint” amid warnings of a wider military escalation following the latest deadly attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam town.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the territory in full but governing separate portions of it, leading to lingering tensions that have devolved into violence over the years.
Indian army sources told Al Jazeera on Friday that the Pakistani side initiated the shooting. A government official in Pakistan-administered Kashmir also confirmed to the AFP news agency on Friday that troops exchanged fire, but did not say who started the exchange.
“There was no firing on the civilian population,” Syed Ashfaq Gilani, the Pakistani official, told AFP.
It was unclear which area along the LOC the exchange of fire took place in, but Al Jazeera’s Umar Mehraj, reporting from Indian-administered Kashmir, said two people were also wounded in a separate encounter in Bandipora.
On Tuesday, suspected rebels killed at least 26 people at a resort in Pahalgam, in the deadliest such attack in a quarter-century in Indian-administered Kashmir.
A statement issued in the name of The Resistance Front (TRF), which is believed to be an offshoot of the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba armed group, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Indian police has offered a two-million-rupee ($23,500) reward for information leading to the arrest of the three suspects belonging to the group, a UN-designated “terrorist organisation”.
The deadly incident has since prompted a significant diplomatic spat between New Delhi and Islamabad, with India’s withdrawal from the Indus Waters Treaty, and Pakistan pausing a canal irrigation project and shutting its airspace to Indian airlines in retaliation to accusations that it was involved in the attack.
The tit-for-tat announcements took relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours, who have fought three wars, to the lowest level in years.
In an interview with Al Jazeera late on Thursday, Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif strongly denied the allegations of Islamabad’s involvement in the attack.
“Accusing Pakistan won’t solve the problem” of the Indian “occupation” in Kashmir, he said.
“The infiltration of some armed groups cannot be possible,” he added, citing that the LOC is heavily guarded.
On Friday, India’s army chief General Upendra Dwivedi is visiting Pahalgam to review the security arrangements in the area.
India‘s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to hunt down the gunmen “to the ends of the Earth”.
Al Jazeera’s Mehraj, who is in Pahalgam, said security has been beefed up in the region since the deadly attack.
“Security agencies are also intensifying their crackdown on media outlets. Hundreds of people are being detained and are being questioned for their links to the attack,” he said.
“Residents are also wary that they will be caught in the crossfire,” Mehraj added.
Meanwhile, Shafqat Ali Khan, spokesman of Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, has declared that the country is ready to retaliate if India infringes on its rights.
“Pakistan’s army remains fully capable and prepared to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity against any misadventure,” he said.
“The Pakistani nation remains committed to peace, but will never allow anyone to transgress its sovereignty, security, dignity and their inalienable rights,” Ali Khan added.
