MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 12: A senior army officer said on Saturday that Indian forces were beefing up their forward positions along the Line of Control (LoC) and the stand-off could explode.

“It is still dangerous and explosive,” the officer told Reuters.

“I think there are all the chances of conflict,” he said. “Conflict is conflict, it is not a game, and it can get out of control.”

The officer was not optimistic about a quick easing of tension between the two sides. “The reinforcement of forward positions by the Indian side on the LoC is still going on,” he said.

“Indian troops have even deployed artillery to forward areas and their deployment is still going on,” he said.

He said he did not see any chances of the tension along the LoC being reduced in coming days,” he said and added that his forces had taken all defensive measures to “meet any eventuality”.

“Exchange of fire on the Loc is going on intermittently,” he said.

“Indian troops are using machine guns, mortars and artillery... We do not initiate fire, we retaliate only when Indian troops start firing,” he said.—Reuters