INDIAN and Pakistani soldiers briefly exchanged fire along their highly militarised frontier in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, Indian officials said today as tensions soared between the nuclear-armed rivals following a deadly attack on tourists.

India has described the massacre in which gunmen killed 26 people, most of them Indian, as a “terror attack” and accused Pakistan of backing it.

Pakistan denied any connection to Tuesday’s attack near the resort town of Pahalgam in India-controlled Kashmir. It was claimed by a previously unknown militant group calling itself the Kashmir Resistance.