India, Pakistan Trade Gunfire at Border

Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged small-arms and machine-gun fire at border flash points Friday as tension mounted between the two nuclear-capable neighbors, officials said Saturday.

A senior Indian defense official said that troops had been deployed “wherever required” along the border of rebellion-torn Jammu and Kashmir state but that the exchanges of fire were not alarming.

“From a military point of view it is routine fire, given the volatile situation along the borders with Pakistan,” said the official, who did not wish to identified.

New Delhi moved more troops to the border after the deadly Dec. 13 suicide attack on the Indian Parliament and recalled its envoy to Pakistan because of what it termed Islamabad’s failure to act against terrorism.

“Our troops are in an extreme sense of preparedness. Our guns are well positioned. But we have not moved our entire equipment close to the borders yet. For that we have to wait till final orders,” the defense official said.

The Indian air force was also on high alert and had moved some bombers to forward bases, he said.

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf denounced India’s recall Friday of its envoy as a “very arrogant and knee-jerk response,” but he said Islamabad would not respond in kind.

In New Delhi, a court extended for two more weeks the judicial custody of three suspects arrested in the attack on Parliament. It also extended the police custody of a fourth suspect for seven days.

India has blamed two Pakistan-based groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, for the attack in which 14 people, including five militants, were killed. It demanded that Islamabad close down the groups.

A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Saturday that India wanted Islamabad to arrest the leaders of the groups. She said New Delhi was awaiting “meaningful action from Islamabad.”

Pakistan has denied involvement and condemned the attack.

Suspected Muslim rebels attacked villages in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, killing three teenage Sikh girls in one village and two Hindu women in another.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killings, but the state’s police chief said Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat Moujahedeen were behind the attacks.