India today said Pakistan shelled and fired small arms on Indian army's forward posts along the de facto border in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.

Its public relations office said "at about 0600 hours on Thursday, the Pakistan army initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by shelling with mortars and firing of small arms along the Line of Control in Krishna Ghati sector," our New Delhi correspondent reports.

"The Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively", he said.

This is the seventh consecutive day that Pakistan has violated the 2003 ceasefire by targeting forward posts along the Line of Control.

In view of the prevailing situation, authorities have ordered a temporary closure of educational institutions in a 5-kilometre radius along the de facto border in Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu and Kashmir and asked all border dwellers to remain inside their homes in view of shelling by Pakistan.

TENSIONS RISING BETWEEN INDIA-PAKISTAN

India flew its warplanes into Pakistani airspace and struck what it said was a camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the militant group that claimed the Kashmir bombing.

READ MORE ON YESTERDAY'S ACTIONS

After the strike India said its warplanes struck a militant training camp inside Pakistan, killing "a very large number" of fighters, though Pakistan officials denied there had been any casualties.

It was India's first air strike on Pakistani soil since 1971 -- when neither had nuclear weapons.

After that incident, India and Pakistan both said they shot down each other's fighter jets yesterday, with Pakistan capturing an Indian pilot a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since 1971, prompting world powers to urge restraint.

The incidents are the latest in a dangerous sequence of events between the two countries, whose ties have been under intense strain since the February 14 suicide bombing in Indian Kashmir that killed 40 troops.