India: Pakistani sniper kills army officer in Indian-administered Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A Pakistani military sniper killed an Indian army officer in the disputed border territory of Kashmir on Tuesday, according to the Indian military.

The attack occurred in the Kupwara district, near the frontier border with Pakistan some 77 miles northwest of Srinigar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.

"This afternoon, a junior commissioned officer (JCO) was killed in Nowgam sector in a sniper attack by Pakistan troops," Xinhua news agency quoted military spokesman Col. Manish Kumar as saying. "The trooper was critically wounded in the firing and succumbed immediately."

Indian officials said the attack was unprovoked but that military forces in the Nowgam sector returned fire into Pakistan.

Despite a 2003 cease-fire agreement, India and Pakistan have intermittently engaged in cross-border battles at the "Line of Control," the de facto border separating the Kashmir and Jammu region between both countries.

On Aug. 16, exchanges of shell fire in the region's Poonch district killed up to six civilians.

Since the 1940s, Pakistan and India have fought three major wars, two of them primarily over control of Kashmir and Jammu.

Officials from both countries were scheduled to meet for security talks on Aug. 23, but the negotiations were cancelled due to the recent cease-fire violations.