SRINAGAR (AFP) Four people were killed when nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan traded heavy fire across their border early Saturday, with each country accusing the other of “unprovoked” military action.

“Two civilians were killed” and four people injured, including a paramilitary soldier, on the Indian side of the international frontier when Pakistani forces opened fire, Indian police inspector-general Rajesh Kumar told AFP.

On the other side of the frontier, two Pakistani civilians — a woman and a 60-year-old man — “were martyred” by Indian fire, a senior Pakistani military official said.

The neighbours accused each other of starting the pre-dawn firing.

The countries have been exchanging almost daily charges of violating a decade-old ceasefire since India scrapped last Monday bilateral talks with Pakistan.

New Delhi called off the talks over meetings between Pakistan’s high commissioner (ambassador) and Kashmiri separatists.

The latest Pakistani fire targeted several Indian border posts, Indian police said. Many villagers living close to the border in the R.S. Pura area of disputed Indian Kashmir have been evacuated due to Pakistani firing, Kumar told AFP.

But Pakistani officials said Indian troops initiated Saturday’s “unprovoked firing”, hitting the Sialkot region facing the south of Indian Kashmir where another civilian was killed by Indian fire last month.

“Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) again resorted to unprovoked firing in the Chaprar and Harpal sectors,” the Pakistani senior military official told AFP.

Last month, Indian police accused the Pakistani army of killing a soldier during border firing in the same region.

On August 8, in a brief moment of goodwill between the nations, Pakistan freed an Indian soldier captured after he was swept into the Pakistani zone of Kashmir when his patrol boat capsized.

Pakistan described the cancellation of the bilateral talks as a “setback” for relations and asserted the meetings with Kashmiri separatists were a traditional practice ahead of talks with India “to facilitate meaningful discussions”.

IANS adds: Meanwhile, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, said yesterday that the Indian Army will respond to ceasefire violations by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.

The minister also criticised the killing of civilians in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistani firing.

“Our army is prepared to respond to each violation. The country has full faith that they [army] are effectively protecting both the territory and the national interest,” Jaitley told the media here.

“The loss of civilian lives is considered condemnable even in war. During peace, it is even more condemnable.”

Jaitley said the army and the defence ministry were collecting information on the latest violation of the 2003 ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir.

“We will give our detailed reaction later,” he said.

Two people were killed and seven injured Saturday in heavy firing by the Pakistan Rangers on Border Security Force posts in the R.S. Pura sector in Jammu district.