A Pakistani soldier was killed Sunday in firing allegedly by Indian troops at the border between the South Asian rivals in disputed Kashmir, Pakistan's military said.

"A Pakistan army soldier embraced shahadat (martyrdom) due to unprovoked firing by Indians… at Battal sector in Rawlakot," it said in a statement.

"Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with Indians and demanded an immediate flag meeting," it added.

Indian army spokesman accused Pakistani troops of starting the firing.

"Our troops retaliated only after they were fired on by Pakistanis," Lieutenant Colonel Biplab Nath told AFP.

Indian side did not suffer any casuality, he said, while accusing Pakistanis of "violating a ceasefire" that has been in force along the de facto border since November 2003.

The incident occurred in the same area where two Indian soldiers were killed by cross-border fire on May 18.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two over Kashmir. They each hold part of the Himalayan region but claim it in full.

Violence has sharply declined in Kashmir since they launched a peace process in 2004.

The insurgency on the Indian side of Kashmir has left more than 47,000 people dead since it erupted in 1989.

Afghan truck bomb kills police officer: official
Khost (AFP) May 21, 2010 –

A suicide truck bomb attack on an Afghan border police station killed an officer on Friday and three other suicide attackers were shot dead, an official said.

The suicide attacker drove his explosives-laden truck into the post in Urgun district of eastern Paktika province, killing a border police officer guarding the gate, provincial spokesman Mukhlis Afghan told AFP.

"Three other suicide attackers dressed in military uniform who were trying to enter the station after the blast were shot and killed by the police," he said.

Urgun shares a border with Pakistan, where Afghan officials say Taliban militants carry out attacks across the border from North Waziristan, a fortress of Al-Qaeda-linked and other Islamist militant groups.

The militants left behind two pick-up trucks with signs reading "Islamic Emirate", the name for the Taliban's repressive 1996-2001 regime toppled in a US-led invasion.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Muhahid, claimed responsibility for the attack and said the truck was loaded with 7,000 kilograms (around 15,50O pounds) of explosives.

"Seven suicide attackers attacked the border police station and killed 20 Afghan police and foreign soldiers," he said, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location. The militia routinely exaggerates its claims.

The Afghan interior ministry said three other insurgents fled the area after the attack and police were searching for them.

The Taliban-led insurgency, in its ninth year, is concentrated in the southern province of Kandahar, where most new arrivals of the US-led "surge" are being deployed.

The total number of foreign soldiers in Afghanistan is expected to peak at 150,000 by August.

The Taliban are becoming more aggressive in Kandahar, where a roadside bomb attack killed one civilian and wounded three children as a vehicle driven by staff of the Afghan intelligence agency was passing by, police said.

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