Islamabad says archrival India orchestrated killings inside Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -- Pakistan has credible evidence linking Indian agents to the killings of two of its citizens on its soil, its foreign secretary said on Thursday, raising tensions between the two neighboring archrivals.

The claim has come days after tit-for-tat strikes between Pakistan and another of its neighbors, Iran, to hit targets they said were hideouts for militants.

New Delhi also alleged that Islamabad trains and harbors Islamist militants who carry out attacks in its part of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between the two nations.

Both the nuclear-armed countries have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

Muhammad Syrus Qazi, the secretary, told reporters the killings involved a "sophisticated international set-up" spread over a number of places.

"We have documentary, financial and forensic evidence of the involvement of the two Indian agents who masterminded these assassinations," he said.

Qazi said local operators, hired and recruited by the Indian agents operating in other countries, carried out the killings late last year, one in Sialkot district and another in Rawalakot in Pakistan-held part of Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Hired guns and other people involved in the two crimes were on trial, he added and identified the alleged Indian agents as Yogesh Kumar and Ashok Kumar. He said the other countries where the Indian agents allegedly operated had been notified.

Those killed were identified as Shahid Latif and Mohammad Riaz by the foreign secretary, without disclosing who these people were and why would New Delhi got its agents to kill them inside its archrival's territory.

India's foreign ministry said the accusation was an attempt by Pakistan to peddle "false