NEW DELHI, March 20: At least three Indian soldiers were killed during military manoeuvres near its border with Pakistan, officials said on Thursday.

Two others, including an officer, were injured when a mortar shell exploded on Wednesday during the drill in Pokhran in the western desert state of Rajasthan, defence ministry officials said.

“An inquiry has been ordered into the accident,” a ministry official said.

The exercise, codenamed Brazen Chariots, involved 37,000 troopers, tanks and war jets and for the first time India invited observers from several countries, including China, South Africa, Italy, Germany, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Kenya and Kuwait, to the one-day event.

India is shopping for military hardware worth $30 billion by 2012 to replace some of its ageing Soviet-era Russian armaments with the latest equipment.

“We are not sending out any message,” Indian army chief Deepak Kapoor said of the war games. “It is purely to see what kind of synergy the Indian air force and the army are able to achieve when put together.”

India has been holding joint wargames with several countries whose representatives were invited for the exercise, including the US and China.

“I think India is displaying the professionalism of its armed forces. It is pushing forward its forging relations with lots of foreign country,” said Brigadier Richard Nugee of the British army. “That’s a very good thing.”

—Agencies