Indian airline IndiGo has confirmed an order for 250 A320neo planes, Airbus announced Monday, the aviation giant's largest ever contract by number.

The order is worth some $26.5 billion (24 billion euros) at catalogue prices, and brings to 530 the number of A320 and A320neo medium-haul planes owned by the low-cost operator.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks Sunday with Abu Dhabi's crown prince on bolstering cooperation with the United Arab Emirates at the start of a two-day visit, state media said.

Modi is the first Indian premier to visit the UAE in more than three decades since Indira Gandhi came in 1981 and is due to address the country's large India expat community in Dubai on Monday.

India summoned Pakistan's envoy in New Delhi Sunday to protest against the weekend killing of at least half a dozen civilians in border firings, hiking tensions ahead of talks between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Six civilians died on the weekend in troubled Indian Kashmir after firing and shelling by Pakistani troops from across the border, according to Indian police.

Pakistan on Saturday said two civilian men were killed and five other people were wounded in the latest cross-border shelling by India in the disputed region of Kashmir. 

The latest casualties came a day after Pakistan said a woman was killed and her husband and daughter, and a third female relative, were wounded by shelling in the Nezapir sector. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned Saturday that corruption was eating away at India "like a termite" as he used an independence day speech to pledge his commitment to eradicating graft and poverty.

In an address from Delhi's Red Fort, Modi sought to silence growing doubts about his leadership after key reforms stalled in a rancorous parliament session dogged by allegations of corruption involving some of his top lieutenants.

Pakistani authorities on Friday accused the Indian army of killing a civilian woman in cross-border shelling violating a ceasefire agreement in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. 

Three other civilians -- the woman's husband and daughter, and a third female relative -- were wounded in the shelling, local officials said. 

Authorities imposed a curfew in parts of the main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir on Friday to prevent any move by separatists to celebrate Pakistan's independence day, police said.

The restrictions in Srinagar, which included the closure of the city's main mosque during Friday prayers, were announced on the eve of independence day in both India and Pakistan and follow a recent spike in violence.

A grenade exploded outside a mosque in restive Indian Kashmir on Thursday, injuring 10 worshipers after morning prayers in the first such incident in 14 years, police said.

Police are investigating but it was unclear who was behind the blast in Trenz village in the southern Kashmir valley which has seen increased security following a recent rise in militant violence.

Global gold demand weakened in the second quarter as purchases fell in key consuming nations China and India, the World Gold Council said on Thursday.

"Total demand was 915 tonnes, a fall of 12 percent compared to the same period last year, due mainly to a decline in demand from consumers in India and China," the WGC said in a quarterly update.

More than 20,000 Indians including prominent business leaders have signed an online petition urging lawmakers to end weeks of rowdy protests that have paralyzed parliament in the world's largest democracy.

The petition on the Change.org site said public trust in the parliamentary system could be damaged by the protests, which have made it impossible for the government to push through key legislative reforms.