Jawan, 3 civilians killed in J&K

Srinagar: Four more people, including an Army jawan, were killed and half a dozen others wounded in fresh firing by Pakistani troops along the International Border (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday.

With these killings, the toll in escalating artillery fire from across the borders since Wednesday night has risen to eleven including seven civilians and two soldiers each from the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Army. Over thirty people, mostly civilians, have been injured whereas over a dozen cattle have also perished.

Pakistan has reported the death of three civilians and injuries to half a dozen people on their side of the IB (called ‘working boundary’ by Islamabad) and the LoC in the tit-for-tat fire.

Though artillery fire has frequently rattled the 198-km stretch of the IB with Pakistan and 745-km LoC in the past also despite a ceasefire understanding reached between the two sides in November 2003, the clashes intensified earlier this week.

Officials in Jammu said that the latest ceasefire violations started on Wednesday night when the Pakistan Rangers “without any provocation” targeted the BSF outposts and civilian areas in Ranbir Singh Pura (RS Pura) and Arnia sectors of the IB, killing a BSF jawan and a 13-year-old girl. On the other hand, the Pakistani authorities had alleged that the firing on villages in Chaprar sector of Sialkot district was initiated by the BSF resulting into the death of two women and injuries to five civilians. Thursday and Friday witnessed more clashes along the IB in which one BSF jawan and two civilians were killed and 26 people, mostly civilians, injured. The BSF said that the Pakistan Rangers targeted over forty of its outposts and about fifty villages all along the IB in Kathua, Samba and Jammu districts on Friday. Late that afternoon, active hostilities broke out also in LoC’s Nowshehra sector in Rajouri district. Lance Naik Sam Abraham was killed in the Pakistani firing in this sector.

On Saturday, three civilian and an Army jawan were killed and six injured in fresh firing by the Pakistani troops along the IB and the LoC, the officials said. They said that the Army jawan was killed in “unprovoked” fire from across the LoC in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district. The slain soldier has been identified as Sepoy Mandeep Singh (23), a resident of Alampur village of Sangrur in Punjab.

The Army said that the Pakistani troops initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms and automatics form 8.20 am in Krishna Ghati sector, resulting in grievous injuries to Singh who later succumbed. The Army retaliated “strongly and effectively,” a defence spokesman said in Jammu.

The officials said that the IB also witnessed fresh ceasefire violation on Saturday.