As if the massive pending war zones in the middle east and the eastern pacific were not enough, India and Pakistan, two heavily armed nuclear nations with truly bad and ancient feeling toward each other are looking for reasons to go to war.
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India's military says Pakistan soldiers made an armed incursion Tuesday under the cover of thick fog into the Poonch district of India-held Kashmir, engaging in a half-hour battle with Indian troops.
Two Indian soldiers were killed and one of the corpses was later found with its head severed, according to Col. Jagdeep Dahiya, an Indian military spokesman. Both bodies were "subjected to barbaric and inhuman mutilation," India's External Affairs Ministry said.
Asked how India knew it was Pakistan's military that committed the killings—and not militants—Col. Dahiya said the army had seen a Pakistan military unit cross the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir. But he acknowledged that no one in the army had seen the killings occur. Soldiers recovered the bodies later, he said.
A Pakistan army spokesman, Col. Abid Askari, denied that soldiers had moved into Indian-held Kashmir or that there was any firing Tuesday over the Line of Control.
Clashes between the soldiers on the Line of Control aren't unusual. But India's claims of mutilation could strain relations between the two South Asian neighbors at a time they are attempting to improve ties through peace talks.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, a territory that was divided between the two countries in 1948 at the end of the first conflict.
By TOM WRIGHT
NEW DELHI—India summoned Islamabad's envoy in New Delhi on Wednesday to address claims that Pakistan's military killed two Indian soldiers and decapitated one of the corpses after a firefight in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir.
In this Aug. 2, 2012 file photo, Indian Border Security Force soldiers stand guard near the India-Pakistan Chachwal border outpost, 65 kilometers north of Jammu, India.
Two Indian soldiers were killed and one of the corpses was later found with its head severed, according to Col. Jagdeep Dahiya, an Indian military spokesman. Both bodies were "subjected to barbaric and inhuman mutilation," India's External Affairs Ministry said.
Asked how India knew it was Pakistan's military that committed the killings—and not militants—Col. Dahiya said the army had seen a Pakistan military unit cross the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir. But he acknowledged that no one in the army had seen the killings occur. Soldiers recovered the bodies later, he said.
A Pakistan army spokesman, Col. Abid Askari, denied that soldiers had moved into Indian-held Kashmir or that there was any firing Tuesday over the Line of Control.
Clashes between the soldiers on the Line of Control aren't unusual. But India's claims of mutilation could strain relations between the two South Asian neighbors at a time they are attempting to improve ties through peace talks.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, a territory that was divided between the two countries in 1948 at the end of the first conflict.