June 20, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

SIALKOT, June 19: A man was wounded as Indian and Pakistani troops traded small-arms and mortar fire but both sides said on Wednesday the intensity of exchanges between them had eased sharply.

The reduction in firing followed intense US-led diplomatic efforts to pull the nuclear-armed neighbours back from the brink of war over a crisis triggered by the Kashmir dispute.

Officials in Sialkot district said a man was wounded when his house in a border village was hit by a mortar bomb early on Wednesday.

“People in front-line villages are not allowed to visit their homes but he somehow sneaked in and was wounded when a mortar hit his house after midnight,” an official said.

Indian troops fired only three mortar bombs in the area during the night, the official said.

Police in Muzaffarabad said no firing was reported from any of the five districts of held Kashmir. Police in Jammu also reported no major firing overnight.

“It has been a quiet border except for some routine firing,” a police official said.—Reuters