Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire along their tense border on Monday, killing four civilians including a teenage boy and a soldier, the latest in a series of deadly clashes.
“The People of Pakistan see the escalation of tension by India on the Line of Control and Working Boundary, through continuous unprovoked firing and targeting of civilians, as an attempt to distract our armed forces from its valiant mission against all terrorists,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said in a statement.
The Pakistani military launched a major offensive against militant hideouts in the northwestern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan in June and says it has killed more than 1,700 militants so far, while 126 soldiers have lost their lives.
“The baseless and preposterous Indian allegations regarding the so called “terror boat” from Pakistan are also in the same vein,” Aslam added, referring to a Pakistani fishing boat that blew up and sank after a high-speed chase at sea on New Year’s eve.
All four people on board the vessel are believed to have been killed in the dramatic episode in the Arabian Sea as the crew tried to evade capture at the hands of the Indian navy, according to the Indian defence ministry.
Aslam said that India was also trying to create a wedge between Pakistan and Afghanistan by creating “misunderstanding”, echoing a commonly traded accusation between that each other is using proxy forces to try to gain influence in that country.
