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India says two killed in Kashmir border firing

SRINAGAR: An Indian army captain and a woman were killed when Pakistani troops fired with small arms and artillery shells from across LoC in occupied Kashmir, police said on Sunday.

"Due to firing from across the border, one woman Vasu Devi was killed in R. S. Pora sector," a police spokesman said. The deaths occurred on Saturday evening, he said.

R. S. Pora sector lies in occupied Jammu region, the winter capital ofoccupied Kashmir state.

Later on Saturday an army captain was killed when a shell fired by Pakistani troops exploded in Uri sector, 100 km (60 miles) west of occupied Srinagar, the summer capital of occupied Kashmir, an Indian army spokesman told Reuters.

Artillery duels between India and Pakistan across the line of control have intensified in recent weeks.

A woman was killed and seven other civilians were wounded on Friday by Pakistani artillery fire in Sabzian sector in border district of Poonch, 480 km (300 miles) southwest of Srinagar.

A 720-km (450-mile) ceasefire line divides the bitterly disputed Himalayan territory of Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

India controls 45 percent of Kashmir. It accuses Pakistan of arming and training separatist guerrillas.

Pakistan, which rules just over a third of the area, denies the charge and says it only provides moral and diplomatic support to the separatists. China rules the rest of the area.

Elsewhere, three people including two separatist guerrillas were killed in several shootouts across the Kashmir Valley.

Nearly a dozen militant groups are fighting New Delhi's rule in Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Moslem majority state.

Police and hospitals say more than 25,000 people have been killed and thousands wounded in separatist violence since 1990 in the Himalayan region.-Reuters