New Delhi:
India summoned the Pakistani High Commissioner in Delhi today after five of its soldiers were killed by Pakistani soldiers and terrorists who crossed the Line of Control in the Poonch area of Jammu and Kashmir. A sixth Indian managed to survive the ambush on the patrol party, allegedly by hiding behind a bush.
His testimony will be crucial in determining how the others died.
The Indians were attacked at 2 am about 200 km south of Srinagar. The Pakistani army has denied any role in the attack.
"The attack was carried out by 20 people dressed in Pakistani army uniform," Defence Minister AK Antony said in Parliament.
That remark lets Pakistan off the hook, said the main opposition party, the BJP. "When the minister says something so ambiguous like 'people dressed in army uniforms' it gives Pakistan a route of escape," said the party's Arun Jaitley. "We cannot make a spectacle of ourselves in the world that we are the willing recipients of such attacks," he added.
Narendra Modi, expected to be the party's Prime Ministerial nominee, tweeted: "Dastardly ambush by Pakistan...leading to the death of 5 Indian soldiers is unacceptable."
Congress president Sonia Gandhi urged the government to "take appropriate measures" and said: "The Indian nation cannot be cowed down by such blatant acts of deceit. "
BJP leaders said the government must rethink plans to resume dialogue with Pakistan. In January, relations between the countries crashed after two Indian soldiers were killed on Indian territory in Kashmir; one of them was found beheaded.
Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said recently that India would be "picking up the threads" of peace talks with the new Pakistani government led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In September, the prime ministers of India and Pakistan were expected to meet on the sideline of a UN conference in New York.