Pakistani and Indian forces exchanged fire across their border at the weekend, a Rangers spokesman said on Monday. In the latest incident, Indian forces using automatic weapons opened "unprovoked firing" on Pakistani positions in the Sialkot area on Sunday night, a paramilitary force spokesman said.

"Our soldiers strongly retaliated and forced them to stop firing," Pakistan Rangers spokesman Nadeem Raza said. "We have decided to forcefully respond if they resort to firing again."

But a spokesman for the Indian border guards told Reuters the exchange was provoked by a militant attack. "A group of terrorists, attempting to infiltrate, fired at Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, our troops fired in retaliation to stop the infiltrators," Vinod Sharma said. "The exchange of fire continued for sometime." Two days earlier, the two sides traded accusations of firing across their border near Lahore.

Copyright Reuters, 2010