Pakistan PM urges 'new beginning' with India

ISLAMABAD - Agence France-Presse

Activists shout anti-Pakistan slogans as they prepare to burn an effigy of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during a protest against the killing of five Indian soldiers in Kashmir during a cross-border exchange, in Mumbai on August 8, 2013. AFP photo

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called for a "new beginning" in relations with India amid high tension over the disputed region of Kashmir, in comments published Tuesday.

Clashes in recent weeks across the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC), which divides the Himalayan territory between India and Pakistan, have raised the temperature between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
 
Sharif said it was vital India and Pakistan became "good friends", in remarks published Tuesday by the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), the state news agency.
 
"Let us make a new beginning. Let us sit together to resolve all outstanding issues in a friendly manner and in a peaceful atmosphere," he said. APP said he made the comments on Monday.
 
India's army on Tuesday accused Pakistan of firing across the LoC late on Monday in the latest confrontation.
 
Tensions have flared in the Kashmir valley since the killing last week of five Indian soldiers, which India blamed on the Pakistani army.
 
Pakistan accused India of killing a civilian during firing on Monday and summoned its envoy in Islamabad to register a protest.
 
The picturesque Himalayan territory is divided between India and Pakistan by the UN-monitored LoC, but both countries claim it in full.