ISLAMABAD // The Pakistani military yesterday accused Indian troops of carrying out a new round of shelling along the disputed Kashmir border and killing a civilian.
An Indian officer denied the allegation, the latest in a series of claims of cross-border attacks made by both sides over the past week.
The flare-up has threatened to derail recent peace overtures by the nuclear-armed rivals.
A Pakistani military official accused Indian troops of shelling the Battal sector of Pakistan-held Kashmir on Tuesday night, killing a civilian, Sakhi Muhammad. A female civilian, identified only as Nabeela, was seriously wounded, the official said.
An Indian army officer denied the allegation, saying there was no shelling or exchange of gunfire in the Battal sector. He said that Pakistani troops had breached a 2003 ceasefire agreement on Tuesday night by firing small arms in the Mendhar sector of Indian-held Kashmir. Indian troops "gave a calibrated response", the officer said.
Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India and claimed in its entirety by both. The countries have fought two major wars over the disputed territory since they gained independence from Britain in 1947.
The recent round of violence began a week ago when India accused Pakistani soldiers and militants of crossing the frontier and killing five Indian soldiers in some of the worst fighting along the border since 1999, when the two armies fought in the Himalayan region of Kargil.
Pakistan denied involvement and since then has accused Indian soldiers of killing and wounding civilians along the Kashmir border. India said its troops had only responded to Pakistani firing and had targeted only military posts.
The 2003 ceasefire agreement had largely calmed the military line between the countries, although each side occasionally accuses the other of firing mortars or small arms across the line of control, which serves as the de facto border.
The Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who took office in June with the goal of improving relations with India so as to jump-start his country's economy, expressed his hope that the recent incidents would not derail the process.
But India's foreign ministry spokesman, Syed Akbaruddin, said on Tuesday that the new violence would damage relations between the countries.
