India, Pakistan Shoot Across Kashmir Border

India accused Pakistan of unprovoked heavy firing from across the international border in the Kashmir region Thursday, a day after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell tried to ease tensions between the archrivals.

Heavy gunfire by Pakistani soldiers began early Thursday and continued for nearly 10 hours along a five-mile stretch, a senior Border Security Force officer said on condition of anonymity.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Riaz Mohammed Khan said only that there were reports of machine gun fire along the border. “Since yesterday, the situation has been more or less calm,” he said.

The Indian officer said that India returned fire but that the severity of the Pakistani action was much higher than normal in the Akhnur sector, about 15 miles northwest of Jammu, the winter capital of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state. No casualties were reported on the Indian side.

The gunfire came a day after Pakistan accused India of a troop buildup along the cease-fire line that separates Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir and said its forces were on a state of high alert. In New Delhi, Indian army spokesman Col. Shruti Kant said the movements were a routine troop rotation.

The two armies face one another in the disputed territory, and belligerent statements and gunfire exchanges are common.

But on Monday night, Indian forces unleashed artillery, mortars and rockets on Pakistani positions.

Powell visited Pakistan and India this week to try to calm hostilities over Kashmir, which is claimed by both South Asian nuclear rivals. Powell called for renewed dialogue between the countries. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee rejected the idea.

A July summit between Vajpayee and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf failed to find ways to settle the 5-decade-old Kashmir dispute.

Powell said in New Delhi that Washington condemns terrorist attacks against India--most of them inflicted by Islamic militants who cross over from neighboring Pakistan.

On Thursday, 20 militants were killed in shootouts with security forces in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

India accuses Pakistan of supporting terrorism and aiding the Islamic rebels, who demand independence or a merger with Pakistan. Pakistan says it only offers moral and diplomatic support to the fighters.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947.