(Bloomberg) -- Four Indian soldiers and two militants were killed in a gun battle in Kashmir on Monday, days after a deadly attack in the disputed region heightened tensions with neighbor Pakistan.

The soldiers were killed during a search operation in Pulwama district, near the summer state capital of Srinagar, an Indian Army spokesman said in New Delhi. The army also said two terrorists were killed in the incident. Earlier on Monday, Pakistan called back its envoy from New Delhi for consultations reciprocating a similar move by India last week.

Forty soldiers were killed in the same district on Thursday when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a bus ferrying security forces. The bus was part of a convoy of 78 vehicles carrying more than 2,500 personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force. Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan-based terror group, claimed responsibility for the attack that also took place in Pulwama.

The worst terror attack on India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 has put pressure on the government to act against Pakistan, which it blamed for the deadly assault in Kashmir. Over the weekend, India raised duties on all goods imported from Pakistan as a retaliatory measure. The government in Islamabad has denied any link to the attack last week.

Kashmir, a Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan since 1947 and claimed in full by both, is at the heart of the dispute between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors, being the cause of two of three wars between them.

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