Two separate gun battles have left three people dead near the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border that divides the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between Pakistan and India, officials say.

Garib Das, a top Indian police officer, said two suspected militants were killed on Sunday in exchange of fire with Indian soldiers after they entered the Keran sector, located 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian-controlled Kashmir.

An Indian army official, whose name was not released in reports, also said that a soldier was killed and two others wounded in another gun fight that erupted after a group of militants crossed over from the Pakistani-administered Kashmir to the nearby Tangdhar sector on the Indian-controlled side late Saturday night.

Kashmir lies at the heart of more than 67 years of hostility between India and Pakistan. Both neighbors claim the entire Kashmir as their own territory, but based on an agreement signed in 1947, they use the LoC to divide the region between themselves.

The archrivals agreed to a ceasefire in 2003, and launched a peace process the following year. Since then, there have been sporadic clashes, with both sides accusing the other of violating the truce.