Indian security forces shot dead five men trying to smuggle heroin across the border from Pakistan on Saturday, a spokesman has said.

The five were killed in an early-morning shoot-out after opening fire at Border Security Force (BSF) paramilitaries near a frontier fence in the Tarn Taran district of Punjab state, according to BSF spokesman Krishna Rao.

An AK-47 rifle, four pistols, ammunition magazines and nearly 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of heroin were recovered, the representative told AFP.

In western markets, the heroin would have a street value of about $1.5 million, according to experts.

Punjab state is a major transit route for drugs entering India from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

India has a high-security fence along most of the roughly 3,350-kilometre (2,060-mile) frontier with arch-rival Pakistan.

But large tracts of the mountainous border in disputed Kashmir remain unfenced. Indian officials said Pakistan forces bombed several villages on the Indian side of the disputed region on Saturday, damaging several properties.

Pakistan Afghanistan India