The Indian army said yesterday Pakistan had violated a 14-month-old ceasefire between the nuclear-armed rivals after mortar bombs were fired across the military line dividing Kashmir, wounding a girl. Pakistan denied the charge, which is nevertheless the latest in a string of setbacks to a slow-moving peace process between the South Asian rivals.

The Indian army said the wounded girl had to be treated in hospital after 15 mortar bombs were fired late on Tuesday from Pakistani territory into Poonch district, 250 km north of Jammu, the winter capital of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state.

“This is certainly a violation of the ceasefire. This has happened for the first time since the ceasefire,” Lieutenant Colonel R.K. Chibber, spokesman of India’s 16th Corps, told Reuters.

The deputy chief of the Indian army, Lieutenant General B.S. Thakur, said India’s Director-General of Military Operations had spoken to his Pakistani counterpart who had promised to respond.

“Our DGMO spoke to his counterpart telling him about our concerns. Initially, the Pakistani DGMO’s reaction was they were not aware of it. When we gave details he promised to come back to us,” Thakur told reporters in New Delhi.

“We take this as a violation of the ceasefire agreement. We could like to use restraint and not retaliate. We have asked Pakistan to consider the incident in all its seriousness.” India says Pakistan arms and trains Muslim militants crossing into Indian Kashmir to join an insurgency against Indian rule.

Pakistan denies that but says it offers the people of Muslim-majority Kashmir diplomatic support in what it calls their freedom struggle.

Indian officials said five militants were killed while trying to sneak into Indian Kashmir in the same district earlier on Tuesday, and said the shelling could have been an attempt to provide cover to other infiltrators.

Asked whether Pakistani troops or militants had fired the mortars, Chibber said: “We are trying to ascertain what actually happened. We have maintained restraint.” A Pakistan government spokesman denied any violation of the ceasefire and said there had been no infiltration from its side.