Pakistan violated ceasefire on Kashmir border: India

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - The Indian army accused Pakistan on Wednesday of violating a ceasefire by firing across a military control line that divides Kashmir between the two countries.

The firing came days after New Delhi protested to Pakistan after Indian soldiers came under heavy cross-border fire last Friday while trying to stop a group of armed militants from sneaking into its part of Kashmir.

It was this year's worst border incident.

India and Pakistan came to a truce along the Line of Control, a ceasefire line, in November, 2003 as part of peace efforts between the two nuclear-armed rivals. Since then violations have been rare.

"Last (Tuesday) evening, Pakistan army resorted to unprovoked firing in Kupwara sector, our troops did not retaliate, no one was hurt," Indian army spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel A.K. Mathur, said.

"This is the ceasefire violation by Pakistani army."

Adding to tensions in Kashmir, eight people were killed when Indian soldiers clashed with militants in a village over the weekend, in some of the worse violence in Kashmir this year.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee is due to visit Pakistan later this month for a review of a four-year-old peace process between the two countries. The two sides have made little progress over Kashmir which they claim in full but rule in parts.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir, mainly Hindu India's only Muslim-majority state, after a revolt against Indian rule broke out in 1989.

Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said on Wednesday that terrorism issues would be high on agenda in Islamabad.

"The fact is, infiltration itself is a problem. We will deal with it on the ground and also bilaterally with Pakistan," Menon said.

(Reporting by Sheikh Mushtaq; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Valerie Lee)