Pakistan, India try to defuse tensions amid Kashmir clashes

Pakistan and India traded fresh accusations of cross-border fire in Kashmir on Tuesday, a day after top officials discussed ways of de-escalating tensions over the disputed Himalayan region.
Lt. Col. Manish Mehta, an Indian army spokesman, said Pakistani soldiers fired mortars at Indian army positions on Tuesday. Indian soldiers “appropriately responded to the unprovoked cease-fire violations,” he said. The Pakistani military said its troops responded to “unprovoked” Indian fire, which continued for two hours.
Pakistani National Security Adviser Nasser Khan Janjua briefly spoke with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on Monday, three officials in Islamabad said, the first such high-level contact in weeks. The three officials, including a close aide to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
Tensions have soared between the two nuclear-armed rivals since a Sept. 18 militant attack in Kashmir that killed 19 Indian soldiers. The mountainous region is divided between Indian and Pakistani-controlled zones, but both countries claim Kashmir in its entirety and have fought two wars over it.
The Indian army said last week that a “surgical strike” had destroyed “terrorist launching pads” used by Pakistan-backed militants. Islamabad rejected the Indian account, saying cross-border fire killed two Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan says it extends moral and diplomatic support to Kashmir militants but denies India’s accusations that it arms and trains them.
The two sides have exchanged several rounds of fire over the past week. Five civilians were wounded by cross-border fire on Monday. No casualties were reported from Tuesday’s exchange.

Inciting unrest
Authorities in Indian Kashmir, meanwhile, banned a local newspaper they said was inciting violence in the Himalayan region.
The editor of the Kashmir Reader, an English-language daily, said police had come to their office carrying an order for them to stop publishing.
“There was no prior notice or communication from the government,” Hilal Mir told AFP. “If there was a problem with the content, they could have sought an explanation from us.”
The order said the Kashmir Reader “contains such material and content which tends to incite acts of violence and disturb public peace and tranquility.”
Rights groups criticized the move, which comes weeks after local authorities briefly banned all newspapers from publishing and stopped Internet services.
“The government has a duty to respect the freedom of the press, and the right of people to receive information,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
“It cannot shut down a newspaper simply for being critical of the government.”
Journalists marched to protest the move in Srinagar on Monday, calling it a violation of press freedom.
Nearly 90 people, most of them young protesters, have been killed in clashes with security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir since the death on July 8 of a popular militant leader.

Source: Arab News