May 10, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 4, 1429

SRINAGAR, May 9: India will lodge a protest with Pakistan after soldiers came under heavy cross-border fire while trying to stop a group of armed men from sneaking into occupied Kashmir, a security official claimed on Friday.

The firing took place in Samba sector, about 400km south of occupied Srinagar, late on Thursday night, minutes after border guards saw the intruders cutting part of a barbed wire fence. Indian soldiers fired back, the official claimed.

“We are not yet sure whether it was terrorist fire or Pakistani troops, but we are lodging a protest with Pakistan anyway,” K. Srinivasan, a senior Border Security Force (BSF) official, told Reuters.

The incident comes ahead

of Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Pakistan later this month for a review of a four-year-old peace process between the two countries.

A truce between India and Pakistan came into effect along the Line of Control in November 2003 as part of peace efforts between the two nuclear-armed rivals and violations have been rare.

Indian officials claim militants fighting New Delhi’s rule in the Himalayan region are still trying to cross the border from Azad Kashmir but violence has steadily dropped after the neighbours launched a peace process in 2004.—Reuters