July 12, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 8, 1429

SRINAGAR, July 11: The Indian army on Friday lodged a protest with Pakistani forces, accusing them of providing cover for Kashmiri freedom fighters trying to sneak into Indian occupied Kashmir.

India accused Pakistani forces of “assisting infiltration by resorting to unprovoked firing” on Indian positions at a meeting between the army commanders of the two countries, said army spokesman Lt. Col. S. D. Goswami.

Pakistani soldiers provided cover for Kashmiri militants trying to enter illegally into the Indian occupied Kashmir to attack Indian targets, Goswami said.

Pakistani army spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas rejected the allegation. Abbas said it was the Indian army that violated a 2003 ceasefire in Kashmir on Thursday by firing mortars and small arms without any provocation in the Battal sector of Kashmir.

“We have lodged a strong protest with them over the breach of ceasefire,” Abbas said.

Goswami denied the Indian army fired on Pakistani positions in the disputed Himalayan region.

The frontier has been largely quiet since the 2003 ceasefire between India and Pakistan, and relations have warmed amid a peace process.—AP