Indian border trooper wounded, Pakistan slams unprovoked firing

Srinagar/Islamabad, Aug 11 (ANS) A Border Security Force (BSF) trooper was wounded in firing by Pakistani soldiers in Kanachak sector of Jammu district on the international border, Indian officials said Sunday, while the Pakistan foreign office accused Indian troopers of resorting to unprovoked firing in the Sialkot sector.

Pawan Kumar, in his early 20s, was shot in his chest around 7.40 a.m. Sunday. He was deployed on an observation tower 200 metres from the border, a BSF officer said in Srinagar.

The BSF personnel fired at Pakistani soldiers in retaliation, he said.

Pawan Kumar was taken to a government hospital in Jammu where his condition was critical. He would be taken to All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi for treatment.

The incident, coming less than a week after the killing of five Indian Army soldiers in an ambush at the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, is the third violation of the ceasefire agreement by Pakistan in the last 48 hours.

In Islamabad, the Pakistani foreign office, however, said Indian troops fired at its paramilitary forces along the LoC in the Kashmir region.

"Indian border security forces resorted to unprovoked firing upon Pakistan Rangers (paramilitary force) in the Sialkot sector this morning (Sunday)," Xinhua quoted Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry as saying in a statement.

Pakistani forces "responded with restraint and responsibility", Chaudhry said.

No one was injured in the incident of firing, he said.