Border phone call after firing

New Delhi: The directors general of military operations of India and Pakistan spoke on a telephone hotline this evening following an escalation in firing across the Line of Control, a day after three Indian soldiers were killed and one of the bodies mutilated. Indian Army sources said the Pakistani DGMO had requested an "unscheduled" conversation. The DGMOs have an institutionalised mechanism for weekly talks. The sources said the Pakistani DGMO had called to protest against what he said were killing of civilians in Indian firing. The Indian DGMO, Lt Gen. Ranbir Singh, told him that Indian forces were only targeting positions from where Pakistan had initiated ceasefire violations. The Indian Army sources claimed the Pakistani DGMO called because of the "punitive fire assaults" following Tuesday's killings and the mutilation near the LoC in Machhil. India and Pakistan exchanged fire in newer sectors along the LoC today and Pakistani sources said 11 civilians died when a bus was targeted by Indian gunners. Pakistani media reported that three soldiers, including an officer, were killed in shelling by the Indian Army. The Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of Pakistan's military, also said three soldiers - Captain Taimoor Ali, Havildar Mushtaq Hussain and Lance Naik Ghulam Hussain - had been killed in Indian shelling today. Independent confirmation of the figures was not possible from either side but the toll was likely to be higher. Indian Army sources did not give any figures of casualties in the firing today but said "we have been giving a befitting reply". They said ceasefire violations were reported from the Bhimber Gali, Krishnaghati and Naoshera sectors. Residents of Gurez in north Kashmir, which has been quieter than most other places on the LoC, said they had been targeted by Pakistani mortars. Sources in the army confirmed that "punitive fire assaults" had been conducted on Pakistani Army positions. Yesterday, the Northern Command of the Indian Army had said "retribution will be heavy for this cowardly act of mutilating a soldier's body". Coffins containing the bodies of the three slain soldiers of the 57 Rashtriya Rifles reached Srinagar this afternoon. Sources said the three - Manoj K. Khushwah, Prabhu Singh and Shashank K. Singh - were part of a patrol and had got separated from the main section. Officials said Pakistani troops shelled Indian positions but the defence spokesman in Jammu, Manish Mehta, said the Indian Army was responding strongly. Officials said the army pulverised Pakistani positions all across the Line of Control in Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu and Machhil and Keran in the Valley and in several areas in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The defence spokesman in Srinagar, Colonel Rajesh Kalia, said the army was conducting "fire assaults". Aziz visit confirmed Pakistan's foreign office today officially confirmed that the country's top diplomat, Sartaj Aziz, would visit Amritsar for the Heart of Asia conference in early December, opening a narrow window for bilateral talks after months of daily bickering and brinkmanship.