Indian troops closing in on Pakistan border

Elite Indian strike forces have moved closer to Pakistan’s border amid escalating tensions, following a suicide attack on India’s Parliament, the defence minister said.

The neighbours traded heavy fire along the border in Kashmir and India said two of its soldiers were killed.

Defence minister George Fernandes said Indian troops were in a state of ‘‘very high alert’’, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

He said part of the Strike Corps - trained to swiftly penetrate enemy territory with tanks and armoured vehicles before a full-fledged infantry attack - had moved nearer the frontier in Punjab and Rajasthan states.

His comments were the latest sign of a military build-up after the December 13 attack on Parliament, which India blamed on Pakistan-based Islamic militants it claims are sponsored by the government.

Pakistan has also put its troops on high alert, and Fernandes said India’s moves were in response to troop movements on the Pakistani side of the border.

‘‘It now came to such a point that India had to take notice,’’ he was quoted as saying.

In Kashmir, India said its troops shelled Pakistani positions in two border areas.

Cross-border skirmishes are common in Kashmir, but shelling had not been reported since the Parliament attack.

Indian military officials said Indian forces retaliated against heavy Pakistani shelling in Bain Galahar, 25 miles southwest of Jammu, the winter capital of Indian-ruled Kashmir. They said up to three Pakistani army bunkers were destroyed and some villagers were fleeing their homes.

The Indian officials said Pakistani forces began shelling hours after Pakistani troops opened fire on a patrol near an Indian border post, killing the two soldiers - the first such deaths reported since the Parliament attack and wounding three.

However, a Pakistani army spokesman said Indian forces fired first and Pakistani border guards retaliated.

Indian artillery also destroyed three Pakistani army bunkers and damaged three others in the Poonch sector, apparently inflicting several casualties, an Indian army official said.

Pakistan’s military said it had destroyed four Indian bunkers and hit an ammunition stockpile in a heavy exchange of artillery fire, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

The military said it retaliated after India targeted villages 100 miles south of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir. Police said a Pakistani civilian was wounded and homes damaged.

India and Muslim Pakistan have fought two wars in half a century over Kashmir, a mostly-Muslim region that is divided between them but claimed by both. Both countries tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

While Indian officials have hinted repeatedly at a possible military response to the Parliament attack, which killed 14 people including the five attackers, they have emphasised that war with Pakistan would be a last resort if diplomatic efforts to achieve their goals failed.

India has demanded that Pakistan freeze the assets of the two militant groups it blames for the attack and arrest and extradite their leaders. It has recalled its ambassador in Pakistan and is moving to shut down rail and road links.

US president George Bush has added one of the groups India accused in connection with the parliament attack, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, to the US list of terror sponsors and called on Pakistan to take action against the group.

Pakistan, however, denies India’s claims that it funds and trains the militants.

Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh had a 45-minute telephone conversation yesterday with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, according to foreign ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao.

Pakistan is a key partner in the US-led campaign against terrorism because of its ties to Afghanistan. But the campaign has put a spotlight on Pakistan-based militants who have been fighting since 1989 to separate Kashmir from India.

There are half a million Indian troops in the region, and the fighting has killed more than 30,000 people.