KARACHI: India and Pakistan Tuesday agreed to observe calm along the Sialkot-Jammu working boundary after days of skirmishes which have been the worst in a decade, BBC Urdu website reported.

A meeting between officials of Pakistan Rangers and India’s Border Security Forces (BSF) was held on Tuesday in which maintaining the decade-log ceasefire was agreed. The meeting was kept confidential from becoming public.

However, Indian media quoted BSF official J S Singla as saying: “The meeting was held in a conducive atmosphere.”

A 2003 ceasefire between the two countries has largely held for the past 10 years, although sporadic violations are common. In recent days, however, the skirmishes had escalated significantly.

Both countries reported an increase in the number of attacks since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh held their first face-to-face meeting last month in New York and agreed on the need to reduce tensions.

The latest violence started on Thursday night at about two dozen border posts in which India claimed 10 civilians, including four children, were wounded.

Islamabad denied the claim, as military officials said Indian troops fired first, wounding two Pakistanis. Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry called the ceasefire violations “a matter of great concern.”