Trading Fire

It is such an innocuous term. It makes you think of people hanging around a campfire and taking turns keeping it lit or sharing it with your neighbors who are having a tough time getting their fire started.

However, the reality is that Pakistan and India were slugging it out across their disputed border region for nearly 12 hours in an attempt to kill each other's troops.

The night-long gunbattle came after one Indian soldier and four Pakistanis were killed Monday along the heavily armed frontier that divides Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, the Indian army said.

No further casualties were reported Tuesday.

Given that these two countries are nuclear weapons capable, and share a common disputed border that has borne witness to three prior wars, you would think that this story would be far more prominent, especially as the Pakistani foreign minister was in the US meeting with President Bush to discuss Pakistan's ongoing problems with the frontier provinces that are safe havens for the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Reuters reports that this was the third and most serious incident along the Line of Control.

As usual, both sides had opposing versions of who was responsible.

Abbas said the firing began when Indian soldiers tried to set up a forward post and he rejected as "fictitious and unfounded" Indian claims that Pakistani troops crossed into Indian Kashmir.

"We have material evidence to suggest that the Indian soldiers had crossed the LoC," he said, adding that it would be shown to the Indians once a flag meeting between the commanders in the sectors was held.

Indian army had blamed Pakistani troops for attacking an Indian post after crossing into its territory.

This is truly a dangerous time for South Asia as Pakistan can barely control its own territory, and the Islamists are busy trying to shape the outcome not only in Pakistan, but Afghanistan and India as well.

India blames the Pakistani ISI for the bombing earlier this month that killed 58 people at the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.