NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India and Pakistan rushed troops and military hardware on Sunday to the tense frontier where at least three people were reported killed in the latest exchanges of fire between South Asia's nuclear rivals.
Islamabad and New Delhi each said they were responding to a build-up of forces by the other as tension mounted following a guerrilla attack on its parliament on December 13 that India has blamed on Islamist militant groups based in Muslim Pakistan.
Both countries have rallied behind the United States' war on terrorism and President Bush said on Friday he was ``very much involved'' in cooling tensions between the two, which have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947 and each tested nuclear weapons three years ago.
Indian officials said two Indian paramilitary border guards were killed and three wounded when Pakistani troops opened fire on the border of the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
Pakistani officials said Indian shooting at various points along the Line of Control dividing Kashmir killed one civilian and wounded eight on the Pakistani side on Sunday.
The two sides exchanged heavy machinegun and mortar fire at several places along the mountain frontier created in 1948 by a cease-fire in the first of two wars over Kashmir.
India, which accuses Pakistan of fomenting a decade-old revolt in mainly Muslim Kashmir, recalled its envoy from Islamabad on Friday, accusing Pakistan of failing to act against terrorism. It is also cutting cross-border bus and rail links.
On Saturday, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf called the move a ``very arrogant and knee-jerk'' response, prompting India to describe his remarks on Sunday as ``extremely regrettable.''
TROOPS DEPLOYED
Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said India had moved strike troops to the border states of Rajasthan and Punjab, on the plains south of Kashmir, but added that Pakistan's troops had ``not taken up any battle position.''
``It now came to a point that India had to take notice,'' he told the Press Trust of India. ``This is when India had to bring its forces closer to the border in both Punjab and Rajasthan.
``These include movement of some formation of strike forces.''
PTI said tanks and artillery were among the strike forces.
Pakistani army spokesman Brigadier Saulat Raza said: ''Pakistan is taking appropriate measures to strengthen its defense along the Line of Control and the international border.''
He told Reuters India had initiated attacks on Pakistani positions on the Siachin glacier -- the world's highest battlefield -- over the past few days and Pakistan responded.
An Indian resident living near the Wagah border crossing in Punjab, between Lahore in Pakistan and AmriCzar in India, told Reuters he had seen several Indian army trucks and artillery pieces moving toward the frontier.
``People from Khalra -- a village some 2 km (1 mile) from Wagah -- have started moving their families to safer areas,'' said Vijay Kumar, a resident of Bhikhiwind near Wagah.
He added that he had seen similar movements in 1965 and 1971, when India and Pakistan went to war with each other.
HOT PURSUIT?
Although Islamabad denies providing bases for Muslim militants in Kashmir and says it offers them only moral support, some New Delhi politicians have been demanding that Indian troops pursue guerrillas across the frontier into Pakistan.
Indian Home (interior) Minister Lal Krishna Advani said on Sunday that strikes on guerrilla camps in Pakistan in response to the suicide attack on parliament would be legitimate.
``Party members have not asked for war but hot pursuit. What is wrong with that? It is legitimate under international law,'' Advani told the Hindustan Times newspaper.
Advani said the Indian government was weighing all options and nothing had been ruled out as it considered how to respond.
India has blamed the parliament attack on two Pakistan-based groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, and has demanded that Pakistan close them down and arrest their leaders.
Pakistan has denied involvement and condemned the attack.
The Indian army said on Sunday a senior member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba had been killed by its forces in Kashmir.
In another mark of sour relations between the neighbors, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry accused Indian intelligence agents on Sunday of detaining and beating up a member of staff from its New Delhi embassy and called for a thorough investigation.