Two Indian border guards were killed today when Pakistani troops fired on Indian posts in Kashmir, hours after US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Islamabad from New Delhi for talks to defuse the crisis.
Mr Rumsfeld said in New Delhi yesterday India was taking "constructive steps" to reduce tensions with Pakistan.
During his visit to Pakistan, Mr Rumsfeld is expected to keep up US pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to crack down on Muslim militants blamed by India for violence in Indian Kashmir.
A deputy commandant and an assistant commandant of the Border Security Force (BSF) died and another guard was injured when Pakistani troops fired mortars and heavy machineguns in Jammu in southern Jammu and Kashmir state, an Indian official said.
It was the first time in recent skirmishes that middle-level BSF officers were killed, he said. Three civilians were injured in Rajouri district in southwest Kashmir.
The two sides also exchanged fire at several other places on their border and along a cease-fire line that divides the disputed Himalayan region into Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.
There was no immediate comment from Pakistani authorities.
The neighbors have massed a million troops on their border since a December raid on the Indian parliament New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
But tension has eased slightly after Islamabad pledged to end infiltration of militants into Indian Kashmir and New Delhi recalled its warships from near Pakistani waters and reopened its airspace for Pakistani flights.