India’s security forces have suffered a double blow in Kashmir, with five police officers shot dead in a bank raid and two soldiers killed in an attack on the border with Pakistan. Early on Monday, the Indian army accused Pakistan of killing two of its soldiers and mutilating their bodies in an “unprovoked” rocket and mortar attack in the disputed border region.

The army said Pakistani troops attacked a patrol operating between two border posts on the de facto frontier known as the line of control in the remote Himalayan region.

“In an unsoldierly act by the Pak army the bodies of two of our soldiers in the patrol were mutilated,” it said, warning of an “appropriate response”. The Pakistani army denied responsibility for the cross-border attack, and said the mutilation claims were false. “Pakistan army is a highly professional force and shall never disrespect a soldier, even Indian,” it said.(guardian)…[+]