NEW DELHI, Dec 18: India claimed on Thursday its controversial fencing of the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir did not violate any agreement with Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner Munawwar Saeed Bhatti, who met the top official in charge of the Pakistan desk at the Indian foreign ministry, was told that the fencing did not violate the 1972 Simla Agreement.

There was also no violation of the Agreement on the Delineation of the LoC, the 742-km military ceasefire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, Indian official Arun Singh told Mr Bhatti.

The Pakistani official conveyed to the Indian side the view of his country that India was violating the agreements between the two countries by taking advantage of the ceasefire along the LoC to step up the construction of a fence.

“The activity has been taking place even before the ceasefire and was not a new development,” Mr Singh was quoted as telling Mr Bhatti.

“In any case we had been compelled to start fencing work on the international border and the LoC because of cross-border infiltration and terrorism sponsored by Pakistan,” Indian external affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said alter.

“It (fencing) was an operational requirement,” Mr Sarna said.

India invited the Pakistani diplomat for the meeting following reports that Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri had complained to US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage that India was trying to change the LoC into an international border by erecting the fence.