In pre-planned op, Pak army beheads 2 soldiers; India vows 'appropriate' response

Jammu: Under the cover of heavy mortar fire, a Pakistani special forces team sneaked 250 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector and beheaded two Indian security personnel on Monday, officials said.

However, the Pakistan army has denied the allegations that it violated the ceasefire and mutilated two Indian soldiers.

The Indian Army on Monday vowed an "appropriate" response to the "despicable act", which significantly took place a day after Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited some areas along the LoC and promised support to the Kashmiris.

The army initially issued a statement saying that the bodies of an army soldier and a BSF head constable were mutilated but a senior army officer told PTI that they were beheaded.

The incident in Krishna Ghati sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir occurred when a joint team of the army and BSF had gone to check the veracity of an intelligence report that landmines had been planted by Pakistani troops on the Indian side.

As they were looking for landmines, the patrol was taken by surprise by Pakistan's Border Action Team (BAT) which had laid an ambush over 250 metres deep inside the Indian territory.

The BAT team had set up an ambush to target the patrol party of the Indian soldiers while the Pakistan Army engaged two Indian forward defence locations (FDL) with rockets and mortar bombs, the officials said.

"It was a pre-planned operation of the Pakistan Army. They had pushed in BAT teams over 250 meters deep inside Indian territory and set up ambushes for a long period to carry out the attack," a senior army official said.

"The Pakistani army posts attacked two FDL posts with rockets and mortar bombs at 0830 hours and engaged them," the official said.

"Their target was a 7 to 8-member patrol party, which had come out of the post," the official said.

He said as the posts were engaged, the patrol party men ran here and there.

"Two members of the patrol party, who were left behind, were attacked by the BAT team and killed. Their bodies were badly mutilated," the official said.

According to reports, at 8:25 am, Pakistani army's 647 Mujahid Battalion targeted India's forward post 'Kirpan' from its post 'Pimple' in Krishna Ghati sector.

It was followed by attack on another forward post in the same area.

A senior BSF officer said that at about 8:30 am, there was heavy firing from the Pakistani army posts at BSF posts at LoC in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district with rockets and automatic weapons.

"They attacked with rockets a forward BSF post (which lies) ahead of the fencing and opened heavy fire from automatic weapons. They violated the ceasefire," the BSF officer said.

The Indian troops retaliated and the firing continued for some time intermittenly.

The soldiers killed were Naib Subedar Paramjeet Singh of 22 Sikh Infantry and Head Constable Prem Sagar of 200th Battalion of BSF. A BSF constable Rajinder Singh was also injured but is out of danger now.

The BJP government has condemned the attack on the Indian forces by Pakistan Army. Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said in Delhi that the "sacrifice (of the two killed) will not go in vain" and the Indian armed forces will react "appropriately" to the "inhuman act" of the Pakistani troops.

"This is a reprehensible and an inhuman act. Such attacks do not take place during war," he said.

"Bodies of soldiers being mutilated is an extreme form of barbaric act. The government of India strongly condemns this act. The whole country has full faith in our armed forces which will react appropriately to the act," Jaitley said.

Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, by engaging in such action, Pakistan was scripting its own destruction.

BJP's national spokesperson Nalin Kohli said it appears that "inhumanity and barbarism" has become the norm in Pakistan.

"This act will not go unpunished as under Prime Minister Narendra Modi the army has not been restrained from responding to Pakistan's unprovoked ceasefire violations," he said.