Indian and Pakistani troops exchange fire in Kashmir

JAMMU

Troops from Pakistan and India exchanged fire in disputed Kashmir for a third night in a row, officials said on Sunday, as relations between the nuclear-armed rivals plunged to their lowest level in years.

India has accused Pakistan of supporting "cross-border terrorism" after gunmen killed 26 people in the worst attack on civilians in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir for a quarter of a century.

Islamabad has denied any involvement, calling attempts to link Pakistan to the attack "frivolous" and vowing to respond to any Indian action.

The Indian military yesterday held naval drills, releasing images of warships firing missiles, while the country's security forces pressed on with their hunt for those behind the April 22 attack at a tourist hotspot in Pahalgam.

The military blamed Pakistan for the "unprovoked" firing of small arms along Kashmir's Line of Control that separates the two countries.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on April 26 said the country was "open to participating in any neutral, transparent and credible investigation" into the attack.

India's navy meanwhile said it carried out exercises to "revalidate and demonstrate readiness of platforms, systems and crew for long range precision offensive strike," without detailing where the drills took place.

The Indian Express newspaper yesterday quoted a top government source as saying "there will be military retaliation" and officials "are discussing the nature of the strike."