NEW DELHI: India’s army has reached an “understanding” with Pakistan to “de-escalate” military tensions in Kashmir after a recent deadly flare-up in the disputed border region, a spokesman told AFP Wednesday.

“An understanding has been arrived at between the two director generals of military operations to de-escalate the situation along the Line of Control,” army spokesman Jagdeep Dahiya said, refering to a de facto border in Kashmir.

Dahiya said that the two sides’ senior military commanders had spoken for 10 minutes over the telephone where they reached their agreement.

“The two DGMOs spoke to each other at 10 a.m. for 10 minutes and the Pakistan DGMO said strict instructions have been passed not to violate the cease-fire,” he said.

Dahiya said Indian troops stationed along the border would also not breach the cease-fire forged between the two nuclear-armed rivals in 2003.

“We have always upheld the cease-fire and have only retaliated,” the spokesman said.

He did not give further details of the conversation between India’s DGMO Lt. Gen. Vinod Bhatia and his Pakistani counterpart, Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem.

The Pakistani military confirmed the telephone conversation between the two commanders had taken place.

It added in a statement, “Pakistan lodged strong protest” over the killing of its soldier Tuesday night.

An Indian military source in Kashmir told AFP there had been no cross-border firing since the two generals spoke.

Earlier, the village of Dara Sher Khan in Pakistan’s Tatta Pani sector, where a soldier was killed, appeared deserted Wednesday as residents cowered in their homes.

Mohammad Afsar, a former army man, said he and his family hid under bedding in their newly built house, which was damaged by mortar shrapnel fired by Indian gunners.

“Indian soldiers keep watching our activities and we live in a state of constant fear,” he told AFP.

The two generals spoke hours after Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar hit out at strident comments by Indian politicians over the clashes, and warned against “upping the ante” between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

“We see warmongering,” Khar said at the Asia Society in New York late Tuesday. “It is deeply disturbing to hear statements which are upping the ante, where one politician is competing with the other to give a more hostile statement.”

India says two of its soldiers have been killed, one of them beheaded, since hostilities erupted along the Line of Control.

It has demanded the return of the soldier’s head, which is still missing.

Khar again denied Indian accusations that Pakistani forces had beheaded one of the soldiers and said an inquiry had found “no evidence” of the deaths.

The two countries have fought three wars since their independence in 1947, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir. But Khar said they had to get over their “narrative of hostility.”

“The doors to dialogue are open,” Khar said. “We need to meet at any level, I think we need to call each other, we need to become mature countries which know how to handle their truth.”