India Border Guards Open Fire on Pakistani Demonstrators; 10 Hurt

Indian border guards opened fire on Pakistani protesters who swarmed into Indian territory in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, officials said.

At least 10 people were reported injured in the shooting, India’s chief spokesman said. Pakistani officials said that one protester was killed and 13 others were shot in the legs.

The episode occurred near Ranbirsinghpura in Jammu region, 310 miles north of New Delhi.

The demonstrators, who shouted anti-India slogans, were protesting a recent Indian government crackdown on Muslim separatists in the Kashmir region of Jammu and Kashmir, said a Pakistani police official in Sialkot, about three miles from the border.

The Indian spokesman said that about 4,000 demonstrators gathered on the Pakistani side and tried to cross the border. “Despite efforts by the Pakistani rangers, some people crossed over and the Indian security forces had to fire to control the situation,” he said without elaborating.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Rashid Babar, Pakistan’s top diplomat in India, was summoned to the Foreign Office and told of India’s “concern and deep regret” at the “unprovoked incident.”

The Pakistan government did not immediately react to the incident.

In Jammu, a senior official of the Indian Border Security Force, which guards the area, said the trouble started around noon when about 500 people gathered near the border and shouted “provocative slogans.”

He said the commander of the Border Security Force outpost then called Pakistani officers into the Indian territory to discuss the situation, after which the Pakistani forces dispersed the crowd.

But the crowd regrouped, and despite the Pakistani guards, many swarmed across the border, he said. Pakistan’s official TV said there were about 30,000 demonstrators.

The intrusion was an apparent fallout of a strike Monday in major Pakistani cities in support of Kashmiri secession. At least 76 people have been killed in Kashmir since Jan. 20 in clashes between curfew-breaking protesters and security forces.