Skirmishes Keep Tensions Simmering Between India and Pakistan

(Bloomberg) -- Tensions continued to simmer between India and Pakistan following their most serious military clashes in decades as cross-border shots and an operation to root out terror suspects killed at least seven security personnel on both sides.

Five Indian personnel were killed in a gunfight with militants in Kashmir, close to the disputed Line of Control with Pakistan, the Times of India reported without saying where it got the information. The government is bringing in a unit of commandos to end a gun battle that’s gone on for three days in the town of Babagund, on India’s side of the Line of Control, it said.

Pakistan’s army said on Saturday that at least four people including two soldiers were killed by Indian troops in cross-border firing. The Economic Times newspaper reported Saturday that India deployed a Scorpene submarine along with "limited movement of ground troops" to secure the border, citing unnamed senior officials.

The maneuvering follows a dramatic week in South Asia that began when India bombed targets inside Pakistan on Tuesday, saying it hit a terrorist training camp blamed for an earlier attack that killed 40 of its paramilitary troops. A further clash on Wednesday led to the capture of an Indian pilot by Pakistan. He was subsequently released on Friday.

Even as skirmishes continue, there are some signs of easing tensions. Pakistan on Sunday reopened its airspace over the eastern city of Lahore, near its border with India. Flight operations at Lahore’s international airport will resume after they were suspended on Feb. 27, Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority said on its website.

The nation had partially opened its airspace on March 1 by allowing flights from Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta but kept operations suspended at airports nearer to India.

--With assistance from Khalid Qayum.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Altstedter in Mumbai at aaltstedter@bloomberg.net

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

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