Jammu, Sep 18 - Two Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were seriously injured in firing from Pakistan Thursday and Friday, leading to Indian protests. But the Pakistan Rangers denied they were involved.

As Constables Bandip Gogoi and Rajinder Singh were hospitalised here, BSF and Pakistan Rangers officials met at 11.30 a.m. Friday to defuse tensions along the international border in Jammu and Kashmir.

The incident took place at the Nikowal border post, about 30 km west of Jammu city.

'We told the Pakistanis very clearly that we are not going to tolerate this any more and the response next time will be stronger,' a BSF official told IANS.

The BSF and the unidentified Pakistanis traded gunfire at least thrice since the first burst of gunfire from across the border late Thursday evening left Gogoi and Rajinder Singh badly wounded.

Gogoi took a bullet in the back while a bullet tore through Rajinder Singh's right eye. Both were in visible agony at the Government Medical College hospital in Jammu. Gogoi is from Assam while Rajinder Singh is from Rajasthan.

Indian officials said initially they were not sure if the firing came from the Pakistani forces or Islamist militants trying to sneak into India.

One officer said there was indeed an attempt by five guerrillas to breach the barbed border.

Indian officials insisted that the Thursday-Friday firing, even if by militants, could not have happened without some official connivance.

BSF Inspector General A.K. Surolia said the Pakistan Rangers were frustrated over their failure to push the militants into Jammu and Kashmir in support of separatist guerrillas already in the Indian state.

'This sort of assault cannot take place without the connivance of the (Pakistani) establishment,' he told journalists.