According to officials here, Muslim militants have infiltrated into Indian-held territory from the Pakistani side of the 460-mile cease-fire line without the knowledge or help of Pakistan.

They came under fire, and it soon became clear that insurgents had crossed from the Pakistani side and seized a sliver of Indian-held territory.

By July 1972, Bhutto had recovered 93,000 prisoners of war and 5,000 square miles of Indian-held territory after signing the Simla Agreement.

In May, 1999, Pakistani forces crossed into Indian-held territory.

India insists that Pakistan has to withdraw the forces that it supports in Indian-held territory before progress can be made.

Meanwhile, Chinese troops too had made incursions into Indian-held territory and tensions between the two reached a new high when Indian forces discovered a road constructed by China in Aksai Chin.

On view here is a letter of that year from George Washington to a brigadier general approving the general's ideas for a viable way of penetrating Indian-held territory.

The clash took place after nearly 20 Pakistani soldiers advanced toward Indian-held territory on the Siachen glacier, the news agency said, quoting an Indian military statement.

Yesterday, however, tensions between these two nuclear powers escalated sharply with an Indian air attack on alleged infiltrators from Pakistan in Indian-held territory in Kashmir.

Referring to the crisis with India over the disputed Kashmir region, the intelligence leader implicitly acknowledged that Pakistan had supported Muslim separatist insurgents into Indian-held territory in the past.