| India destroys bunkers { June 17 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-southasia-firing.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-southasia-firing.html
June 17, 2002 India Says It Destroys Pakistani Bunkers in Kashmir By REUTERS
Filed at 8:29 a.m. ET
JAMMU, India/SIALKOT, Pakistan (Reuters) - India said Monday its troops had destroyed four Pakistani bunkers in an exchange of fire across the military line of control dividing Kashmir.
A kerosene oil bunker was also set on fire in the Drass sector where four Pakistani bunkers were destroyed, the defense ministry said in a statement.
It said the two sides traded gunfire at several places along the 450-mile line of control and the international border in Kashmir.
Fears of war between the nuclear-armed rivals have eased in recent days following U.S.-led diplomatic efforts and several confidence-building measures to reduce tension, although there are still nearly a million troops massed along the border between the two countries.
The two armies have traded heavy fire during the past month in Kashmir killing and wounding scores of civilians on both sides. Thousands of villagers have fled their homes near the border.
Police in Pakistan's Sialkot district said India and Pakistani forces fired mortars at each other overnight along the border between Punjab province and India's Jammu region.
``One house was badly damaged when a mortar bomb hit it early this morning in Chiprar sector,'' a police official said. ''There was no loss of life.''
Local officials in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-ruled Kashmir, said there was a ``complete lull'' in firing in all five districts of the state that borders Indian-controlled Kashmir.
``There has been no firing incident on the Line of Control since last night,'' an official told Reuters earlier Monday.
While the cross-border fire has eased in recent days, 21 people were killed in clashes Sunday between separatists and security forces in Indian Kashmir.
It was the worst violence there since a May 14 attack on an Indian army camp in which 30 people were killed.
India accuses Pakistan of stoking the revolt in Indian Kashmir by training and arming the fighters.
Pakistan denies the accusation saying it only offers political support to what it describes as the legitimate campaign for self-determination by the Kashmiri people.
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