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India summons Pakistan’s envoy after border attack

Jan. 9, 2013 - 20:36 By Korea Herald
NEW DELHI (AFP) ― India summoned Pakistan’s envoy in New Delhi on Wednesday to protest at the killing of two soldiers and the reported beheading of one of them in a border attack that has raised tensions in South Asia.

The two Indian soldiers died after a firefight erupted in disputed Kashmir around noon Tuesday as a patrol moving in fog discovered Pakistani troops about 500 meters inside Indian territory, according to the Indian army.

Promising that New Delhi’s response would be “proportionate,” Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said late Tuesday that senior government and military officials would decide on Wednesday a course of action over the “ghastly” incident.

In a first step, his ministry summoned Pakistani’s High Commissioner (ambassador) Salman Bashir to lodge a complaint about the clash, which has dealt a blow to peace efforts between the nuclear-armed neighbors who have fought three wars since independence.

“The Pakistan envoy has been summoned to meet with the foreign secretary,” ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.

Indian authorities said the body of one of the soldiers was “badly mutilated,” while newspapers and a military source speaking to AFP indicated that he had been decapitated.

The bodies of both men have been brought to an army hospital in Rajouri in northern India where a post-mortem will confirm the extent of their injuries and whether one of them was beheaded, army spokesman Rajesh Kalia said.