India to respond to 'ghastly' attack on troops: Salman Khurshid

NEW DELHI: Foreign minister, Salman Khurshid on Tuesday said that India would give a "proportionate" response to the "ghastly" death of two soldiers at the hands of Pakistani troops along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

"We need to do something about this and we will, but it has to be done after careful consideration of all the details in consultation with the defence ministry," Salman Khurshid said.

"It is absolutely unacceptable, ghastly, and really, really terrible and extremely short-sighted by their part," he added, saying any response would be "proportionate".

Condemning the attack, which it called provocative, Government said it will take up the incident with Pakistan. "We expect Islamabad to honour the ceasefire agreement strictly," Defence Ministry said in a late night statement.

Today's attack took place along the Line of Control in Poonch district when Pakistanis came about 100 metres into Indian territory and assaulted the patrol party.

Besides killing two, they also injured two other soldiers and took away their weapons and other belongings.

In Islamabad, Military spokesman denied India's allegation of provocative action in Poonch sector by Pakistani troops.

However, the sources said Pakistan Army's Border Action Team entered into Indian territory at Krishna Ghati area of Poonch district and carried out the strikes well past 11.30 AM and the attack lasted for more than an hour.

Army's Udhampur-based Northern Command came out with a statement terming the attack as a "significant escalation" to the continuing series of ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts supported by Pakistan Army.

"A group of their regular soldiers intruded across the Line of Control in the Mendhar Sector on January 8. Pakistan army troops, having taken advantage of thick fog and mist in the forested area, were moving towards our posts when an alert area domination patrol spotted and engaged the intruders," it said.

"The fire fight between Pakistan and our troops continued for approximately half an hour after which the intruders retreated towards their side of LoC. Two soldiers Lance Naik Hemraj and Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh laid down their lives while fighting the Pakistani troops," the statement said.

In last about one month, Pakistan army has violated the ceasefire agreement nearly a dozen times. Most of these firing incidents were in Rajouri, Uri and Keran sector to help infiltration attempts, army officials said.