Skirmishes continue on Kashmir border

Pakistan's military said Havildar Mohyuddin was killed in an "unprovoked" attack by troops firing over the line of control between the two sides.

India's army said Pakistan fired first.

It's the third cross-border killing since Sunday when Pakistan accused India of killing a soldier in a raid.

India denied it, adding that Pakistani shelling had destroyed a home.

And on Tuesday India said a raiding party crossed the line, killing two soldiers and mutilating their bodies.

The disputed Kashmir region has long been a flashpoint and the two nuclear-armed states have fought full-scale wars over control of the territory.

But the Hindu newspaper suggested today that there was a relatively innocuous start to the most serious round of deadly violence since a 2003 ceasefire took hold.

The paper said 70-year-old grandmother Reshma Bi crossed into the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir to be with her sons in early September.

According to high-placed Indian army sources, this set off alarm bells in the military control about the state of border defences.

India began constructing new outposts, which it conceded broke the terms of the 2003 deal, said the paper's sources.

After Pakistan complained across a loudspeaker in October and after the warning went unheeded, shells were fired across the border, which missed and killed three civilians.

The army source said the January 6 raid was launched with the permission of military commanders in response to constant low-level fire from the Pakistani side.