3 Pakistani soldiers killed in J&K retaliatory fire: Army

Pakistan on Tuesday summoned the deputy Indian high commissioner J.P. Singh and registered protest over ‘repeated violation of the Line of Control and Working Boundary’ by India.

At least 2-3 Pakistani Armymen are believed to have been killed on Tuesday in retaliatory firing by Indian troops in the Noushera sector of Rajouri district while six female members of a family were injured in R.S. Pura sector of Jammu district in cross-border shelling.

Heavy exchange of fire, involving use of 82 mm and 120 mm mortar shells besides small arms, was still going on in the evening after it started at around 10 am, Army sources said.

The BSF and police officials said that the Pakistani Rangers fired mortar guns and small arms to target the Indian Border Outposts (BoPs) and civilian areas in R.S. Pura and Noushera sectors along the IB and LoC, leaving six members of a family injured. A BSF spokesperson said that, on Tuesday afternoon, the Pakistan Rangers violated the November-2003 ceasefire agreement again by restoring to firing and shelling during which the civilian population too was targeted. “Several rounds of small arms and mortar shells were fired from the Pakistani side targeting our villages in the RS Pura sector,” the spokesperson said.

Jammu DC Simrandeep Sinha added that six members of a family sustained splinter injuries after a mortar shell fired by Pakistan Rangers exploded in their house in Suchetgarh area of R.S. Pura. They were given first aid at a local hospital and then shifted to Jammu’s government-run Medical College Hospital, the officials said.

The BSF also said that its jawans were giving a befitting reply to the Pakistani fire and that the intermittent firing and shelling was underway.