Indian army alleges soldier killed in cross-border firing

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A soldier who was injured in an exchange of fire between Pakistani and Indian troops along the Line of Control on Wednesday evening has succumbed to his injuries, the Indian military claimed on Thursday.
Colonel SD Goswami, a spokesman for the Indian Army accused Pakistani troops of opening “unprovoked fire” at Indian positions in the Poonch sector along the LoC, some 200 kilometres southwest of Srinagar.
“Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire again during which our soldier was injured who died later,” Goswami told AFP, adding that the Indian side had returned fire.
Earlier in July, Pakistani officials blamed Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) for killing four civilians in two separate incidents of cross-border firing in Sialkot’s Chaprar sector and Rawalakot’s Neza Pir sector.
Earlier in July, India accused Pakistan of killing two border guards and one civilian in Kashmir.
Media reports have also said that the attackers behind an assault on a police station in India’s Punjab province on Monday, which left 10 people dead, may have travelled from Kashmir.
Tensions along the border between the two neighbours have escalated despite an hour-long meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Ufa, Russia on July 10.
A border ceasefire agreement signed by the neighbours in 2003 has largely held, but both frequently accuse each other of breaching it.