India, Pak wage war of words

India yesterday warned Pakistan of an "unequivocal" response to the killing and mutilation of two soldiers yesterday along the Line of Control in Kashmir.

Pakistan, which has denied the barbaric act, said in response that India "should look inwards" to determine how the soldiers were killed, sought "actionable evidence" of India's claims, and warned "any disadventure shall be appropriately responded at a place and time of own choosing."

The Indian army said Pakistani forces fired rockets and mortar bombs at two Indian posts on the Line of Control dividing Muslim-majority Kashmir between the two countries, in the Krishna Ghati sector.

The recriminations were exchanged between top commanders of India and Pakistan - the Director General of Military Operations, Lieutenant General AK Bhatt, spoke on a hotline to his counterpart across the border hours after Delhi warned that the army will exact revenge for the atrocities committed on Prem Sagar and Naib Subedar Paramjit Singh on Monday.

Both men were part of a team patrolling the Line of Control or de facto border in the Poonch sector last morning when two posts were assaulted with rockets and mortar bombs.

Past accusations that Pakistani forces have mutilated dead Indian soldiers have outraged the Indian public and intensified the dispute between the two nuclear-armed neighbours over the Himalayan region.

The soldiers - one from the Border Security Force and the other from the army - were honoured as heroes yesterday morning before their bodies were transported to their families in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

Prem Sagar's daughter said "We want 50 heads to avenge him."

India says a team of Pakistani soldiers and terrorists sneaked past the Line of Control and entered Indian territory under the cover of heavy fire from the Pakistani army.

India described the mutilation of the soldiers as a "dastardly and inhuman act" deserving of "unequivocal condemnation and response."

India's Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, who also holds the finance portfolio, condemned the latest killings which he called "reprehensible and barbaric".

In September, India responded to a massive attack by Pakistani terrorists on an army camp in Uri in Kashmir by sending soldiers across the Line of Control to take out staging areas for terrorists in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Delhi warned at the time that it could repeat the action.

India and Pakistan have faced off for decades across the Line of Control, an old ceasefire line through the region that both countries claim in full but rule in part.

In a separate incident on Monday, militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir ambushed a van carrying cash for the state-run Jammu and Kashmir Bank, killing five policemen and two bank officials, a senior police official said.