The Pakistani troops resorted to shelling in five forward villages in Hanjipeer area of Uri sector in Baramula district, the sources said.

The jawan was killed and seven others were injured when a shell exploded near a forward picket at Silikote.

The cross-border shelling lasted over an hour but the casualties suffered by Pakistani troops were not known immediately, the sources said.

Exchange of fire between Pakistani troops and the Army was also reported in other sectors of North Kashmir, including Tengdhar, Machil, Kernah, Teetwal and Gurez sectors of Kupwara and Baramula districts since last night.

Meanwhile, four Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leaders, including its vice-president Javid Ahmad Mir, were taken into preventive custody by the police at Panthachowk on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, official sources said here today.

Mir along with Javid Zargar, Mohammad Zaman and Wajahat Qureshi, were detained by the police while they were heading for Jammu, the sources said, without divulging the reason for detaining the leaders.

However, acting president of the JKLF Bashir Ahmad Bhat along with another party activist Mohammad Sidiq, who were travelling in a private car, gave the police the slip and efforts were on to arrest them, the sources said.

JKLF spokesman Tahir Ahmad Mir, however, said the two were heading a six-member party delegation to Doda district of Jammu region in connection with organisational work when they were detained. Describing the arrest as unwarranted, he demanded immediate release of the leaders and said some of them had to appear before the court in Jammu in connection with some pending cases.

Meanwhile, in a major breakthrough, security forces seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition, including mortars and solar rockets, from a forest hideout in the frontier district of Kupwara last night.