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India Says Pakistan Violated Cease-Fire Agreement in Kashmir

There was shelling with mortars and the firing of small arms by Pakistan in the early hours of Sunday: Indian defence official. 

India Says Pakistan Violated Cease-Fire Agreement in Kashmir
Prime Minister Narendra Modi accepts salute at the CISF’s 50th Raising Day, in Ghaziabad, on March 10, 2019. (Photographer: Kamal Singh/PTI) 

(Bloomberg) -- India said Pakistani forces violated a cease-fire agreement along the Line of Control in Kashmir, and accused its neighbor of failing to take credible action against terror groups.

There was shelling with mortars and the firing of small arms by Pakistan in the early hours of Sunday, and India "retaliated befittingly," according to an Indian defense official. The Indian army separately said it brought down a drone on Saturday in Ganganagar in the state of Rajasthan, a city near its border with Pakistan.

Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors escalated in recent weeks after a Pakistani-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, claimed responsibility for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing that killed 40 troops in an Indian-administered portion of Kashmir. India later bombed targets inside Pakistan, saying it hit a terrorist training camp blamed for the attack. A further clash led to the capture of an Indian pilot by Pakistan, who was subsequently released.

Pakistan hasn’t taken proper action against terror groups operating from its soil and remains in a state of denial, India’s ministry of external affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar said on Saturday.

The presence of terrorist camps in Pakistan is public knowledge, Kumar said. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday reiterated that terrorist groups will not be allowed to operate from the country.

--With assistance from N. C. Bipindra.

To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in New Delhi at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Santosh Kumar in New Delhi at sthakur10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Peter Vercoe

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.