India, Pakistan investigate border rocket blasts

By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD – India said that three rockets were fired into the country from Pakistan overnight, but Pakistani officials said Saturday they were launched from India. No one was injured in the blasts.

The rockets struck near the border villages of Dhoni Khurd and Modey in India's Punjab state, said Himmat Singh, an inspector general of India's Border Security Force.

While shooting incidents are quite common on the archrival countries' shared border in Kashmir, they are more rare along the frontier in the Punjab. Still, there was no sign the incident would spark any major diplomatic tensions.

Singh said it was not immediately clear who had fired the rockets, but they came from the other side of the border and Indian soldiers returned fire.

"We have lodged a protest with the Pakistan Rangers and are trying to ascertain who is responsible for the rocket attacks," Singh told reporters Saturday.

Nadeem Raza, a spokesman for Pakistan's paramilitary Pakistan Rangers (Punjab), said their commander met early Saturday with his Indian counterpart to discuss the incident.

He denied that the rockets were fired from Pakistan, but said an investigation was under way.

"We are confident that the rockets were fired from India and they landed on the Indian side," Raza told The Associated Press.

The rockets fell in empty fields and did not cause any damage.

The Indian army accused Pakistan earlier this month of shooting across the border into Kashmir in an incident that killed an Indian soldier. Brig. Gopala Krishnan Murali, a senior army officer, at the time could not say whether the Indian post was targeted by the Pakistan army or suspected Islamic insurgents inside Pakistani territory.

Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations, having fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.