New Delhi, Jan 9 (IANS): India said Wednesday that it will take up "very firmly" with Islamabad the brutal killing of two Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistani troops.

"We will take this up very firmly with the Pakistan government," External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters.

Pakistani High Commissioner Salman Bashir was called to the external affairs ministry "and spoken to in very strong terms", Khurshid said here.

He said the mutilation of the Indian soldiers was "an extremely sensitive matter" and "a matter of great concern to everyone".

"We have conveyed our deepest concerns. We would expect appropriate response from (Pakistan).

"At the same time it is very important that we make sure such incidents should not be escalated," he said.

The minister said the ceasefire on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir since 2003 was the most important part of the confidence building measures between the two countries.

"Therefore, violation of that itself is a manner of great concern and that will obviously, if not immediately contained, will have an adverse impact on what we have been trying to do for such a long time," he said.

The minister earlier told TimesNow television: "These are matters on which every dimension has to be examined very carefully."

Indian officials said that Pakistani soldiers sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday under the cover of a thick fog and killed the two Indian soldiers and wounded a third.