SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - The Indian army said Pakistani shelling killed two of its soldiers at posts along the border of Indian-administered Kashmir on Sunday, and five others including three civilians were injured.

It said it retaliated by destroying several Pakistani posts.

Artillery tit-for-tat exchanges and skirmishes between the two have intensified along the frontier running through the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir over the last few months.

The dispute over Kashmir has sparked two of the three wars between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan since partition and independence from Britain in 1947.

“We are giving a fitting response. (We) will hit them where it hurts the most,” said Indian defense spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta.

“It is very unprofessional act of the Pakistan army to target our residential areas.”

On Thursday, Pakistan named eight Indian diplomats it accuses of espionage and terrorism. New Delhi dismissed the allegations as “baseless and unsubstantiated”.

Ten days ago, the two countries expelled one diplomat each from the other’s embassies, each accusing the other of spying.