Pakistan said one of its soldiers was killed Thursday by “unprovoked” Indian firing across their tense border in Kashmir, the third deadly incident reported in five days in the disputed region.

The Pakistan military said the incident happened in the Battal area of the Himalayan region. A military spokesman said “Pakistan Army soldier, Havildar Mohyuddin, embraced shahadat (martyrdom) due to unprovoked firing by Indian troops” at Kundi post in Hotspring sector at 2:40pm (0940 GMT) on Thursday.In the Battal area and right on the LoC, Pakistani residents of Darmasaal village said Thursday they had been confined to their homes by heavy firing for days.

We are scared. We can’t come out because the area is under constant fire,” Shaukat Butt, 38, said. “We used to cross the river by boats but yesterday Indian soldiers fired at our boat, so everybody is confined inside now.”But the Indian army instead of admitting its wrong again resorted to levelling counter allegation saying that it was Pakistan which opened fire and Indian soldiers retaliated. Colonel RK Palta said Pakistani side opened fire at around 5pm (1130 GMT) in Poonch region.

The firing is still on and we are retaliating. Both sides are using small and automatic weapons,” he added.On Sunday Pakistani army said Indian troops killed one of its soldiers and wounded another in a cross-border attack.On Tuesday India claimed two of its soldiers were killed by Pakistani troops and one of them was beheaded. But Pakistan vigorously denied the Indian claim saying it was propaganda to divert attention from Indian aggression.Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Thursday took potshots at the Indian media for blowing the issue of mutilation of bodies of Indian soldiers, and rejected the charges of ceasefire violation.

Even after martyrdom of our soldier, we kept to bilateral mechanisms. But from their side, contradictory strong statements were made,” she said.Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid Thursday told reporters in Pairs he was “perplexed” by the killing of two Indian soldiers on the border. And privately senior Indian military officers have said they want to see the beheading avenged on the ground as a question of “honour”.Addressing a press conference here at Foreign Office on Thursday Foreign Minister Hina Khar said Pakistan has acted in a responsible manner every time it faced a challenge.

I am proud to be representing a government, which has acted in a responsible manner every time it faced a challenging situation,” she said.After holding a meeting with Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakachaikul, Hina said, “We want to respect the cease-fire of 2003; this is absolutely unacceptable for such allegations to be made.” She said Pakistan did not want to respond every statement being published in Indian media adding that Pakistan has responded officially to this incident and emphasised the need that available mechanism should be adopted to resolve the issue.

The foreign minister said Pakistan was serious in the dialogue process and hoped that the recent incident of firing across the LoC in Kashmir would not derail it. She said Islamabad had already responded to the LoC incident and rejected India’s claim that the Pakistan Army was responsible for the killing of two Indian Army soldiers.Pakistan has contacted the UN through the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan, present across the Line of Control, to investigate the matter, she said. She said Director Generals Military Operations of the two countries had also contacted to discuss the issue.

To a question, she said “Both the countries have a mechanism to deal such issues and as responsible states; we have to adopt this mechanism.”Appreciating the positive role of Pakistani media and hostile attitude of Indian media, she said irresponsible statements could create disturbance in the Pak-India relations. The foreign minister said there were contradictory statements from India on their claim about killing of two soldiers in the Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Replying to a question about delay in giving Most Favoured Nation status to India, the foreign minister said Pakistan was committed to normalise its relations in all spectrum of their relations, including trade. She said normalising trade relations with India was under process and there could be a delay of few weeks in taking final decision in this regard. She, however, said there should be no visible or invisible barriers in smooth trading between the two countries.Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said in Paris after meeting with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius, “Why should this happen? It perplexes me.

I don’t think anyone on the other side of the border is achieving anything wholesome... It’s extremely shocking and unacceptable. We’ve even used the word barbaric and I can’t imagine that anyone would disagree with that on any side of the border. Khurshid however also stressed the need for keeping the normalisation process on track.The Indian government had also rejected Pakistan’s proposal for a UN inquiry into LoC killings.