Srinagar, India: The Indian army on Wednesday said that three of its soldiers have been killed in cross border firing in disputed Kashmir, the latest skirmish between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Tensions between the two countries have soared since September when militants attacked an Indian army base in Kashmir, leaving 19 soldiers dead.

Since then the two sides have engaged in cross-border fire almost daily leading to deaths of soldiers and civilians on both sides.

One Indian soldier died after coming under Pakistani sniper fire on Wednesday in Machhal sector, army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia told AFP.

Indian soldiers retaliated by targeting the Pakistan army posts across the Line of Control—the de facto border dividing the disputed Himalayan region—he said.

The sniper attack came a day after two soldiers were killed in Pakistani firing in Naushera sector, a separate Indian army statement said.

Three civilians on the Pakistani side of Kashmir were also killed in that exchange of fire, according to local officials.

In a separate incident, Indian troops gunned down two suspected militants in a firefight in the Sopore area of Indian-administered Kashmir after receiving a tip-off.

‘Two terrorists were killed and two weapons were recovered from their bodies,’ Colonel Kalia said.

The latest exchanges of fire come as ties worsen between the two rivals.

India blamed the September attack on Pakistan-based militants and responded with ‘surgical strikes’ on what New Delhi described as terrorist launching pads across the dividing line.

Pakistan denied the strikes took place and the two sides have since expelled diplomats from their countries in a tit-for-tat row.

The border skirmishes come against the backdrop of months of protests against Indian rule of Kashmir, sparked by the killing of a popular rebel leader in July.

Nearly 90 people, most of them young protesters, have been killed in clashes with security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir since then.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan territory in full and have fought two wars over the mountainous region.