India to Keep Wary Eye on Border After Pakistan Opens Unprovoked Fire, Ex-Army Brigadier Says

India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) and the international border in February 2021 after years of relentless fighting over the disputed region of Kashmir. The two countries have fought three wars over the region, which is shared between them.

India's Border Security Force and army will keep a careful watch on the international border and the Line of Control, a military expert told Sputnik after Pakistan opened "unprovoked fire" on Tuesday morning.

"It may be due to some local factors or an infiltration attempt. It appears that things have been resolved at the coy commanders' level. However, the Indian army and border security force will maintain a cautious watch as the incident happened after a very long time," Rahul Bhonsle, a former brigadier of the Indian Army, told Sputnik.

India and Pakistan exchanged 10-15 rounds of fire after Pakistani Rangers posted in Khanor opened firing at Indian BSF troops engaged in "maintenance work" in the Arnia sector of the Jammu district on Tuesday morning. No one was injured, according to Indian officials.

Following the incident, the border guards of the two countries held a coy commander-level flag meeting along the international border and both sides agreed to exercise maximum restraint on the border, a spokesperson for India's Border Security Force Jammu said. The meeting ended in a "cordial manner," he added.

Bhonsle, however, avoided linking the incident with the internal crisis of Pakistan, where former Prime Minister Imran Khan made controversial remarks against the Pakistani Army. Khan said that the Shehbaz Sharif government has been delaying the elections to appoint the next army chief of its own choice.

"At this moment, one should not see the ceasefire violation as an attempt to divert attention from Pakistan's internal crisis," Bhonsle added.

Bilateral ties between the two countries dipped to a fresh low in August 2019, when India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Between 2019 and 2021, the two sides accused each other of violating the ceasefire agreement around 5,000 times. Nevertheless, in February 2021, the two armies ultimately agreed to stop the firefight along the border, including the Line of Control, which divides disputed Kashmir between the two countries.