Firing across the India-Pakistan border killed at least 14 people on each side and three Indian police officers were slain by suspected Islamic militants on Thursday, hours after Britain’s envoy urged the nuclear-armed neighbours to pull back from the brink of war.
In India, at least 14 people – three Indian army soldiers and 11 civilians – were killed in overnight artillery shelling and mortar fire from the Pakistani side, a police representative said on condition of anonymity.
Some 20 people were also wounded from shrapnel and gunfire as small arms fire continued Thursday in the border areas of Punch and Naushahra, the representative said in Jammu, the winter capital of India’s northern Jammu-Kashmir state.
Meanwhile, Pakistan television reported on Thursday that 14 civilians were killed in Pakistan by Indian shelling overnight.
The shelling resumed soon after British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw left the subcontinent after visiting Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
In Washington, the US State Department warned that ”irresponsible elements” in India and Pakistan could spark a conflict against the wishes of both leaders.
”The climate is very charged and a serious conflagration could ensue if events spiral out of control,” said representative Richard Boucher.
Machine gun firing began across the border in the Machhu area of Kupwara, 130 kilometres north of Srinagar, the state’s summer capital. This area had not witnessed any firing for about four days.
In the hinterland, militant violence continued. Suspected Islamic militants stormed a police base in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing at least three officers, police said.
The attack took place at the District Police Lines in Doda, a mountainous area believed to be a stronghold of Islamic rebels who have been fighting since 1989 to separate Kashmir from India. Doda is about 180 kilometres northeast of Jammu. Further details were not immediately known, police said.
Elsewhere, two unidentified militants were killed on Thursday in separate encounters with the army.
Jaswant Singh, India’s foreign minister, said on Wednesday that if Pakistan wants peace, it must act urgently to stop Islamic militants from infiltrating Indian territory to stage terror attacks in Kashmir.
A war between India and Pakistan would be their fourth since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. Two of the three wars were over divided Kashmir, which both claim in its entirety.
India accuses Pakistan of waging a ”proxy war” for 12 years by funding, training and arming the militants and providing covering fire for them to cross the border. Pakistan insists it only provides moral and diplomatic support for the ”freedom fighters.”
At least 60 000 people have died in the insurgency. – Sapa-AP