Bofors roar to answer Pak firing

Srinagar: As clashes between the facing troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Haji Pir sector of Jammu and Kashmir’s Uri region continued on the third consecutive day on Saturday, the Indian Army is reported to have used multi-purpose Bofors 40mm auto-cannon to respond to what it alleged was “unprovoked” shelling from across the de facto border.

The exchanges peaked around 12.30 pm on Saturday when dozens of mortar shells started raining down into populated civilians areas of Uri and those across the LoC. The worst affected on the Indian side of the de facto border was Silikote. “The Pakistani troops targeted the Army’s Silikote 1 post with mortar guns and several shells landed in Silikote village and a few in neighbouring Churanda causing panic among the leftover civilians,” said a police official over the phone from Uri.

Uri’s sub-district police officer (SDPO) Javed Ahmed said that while more than 500 people had already fled the affected hamlets along the LoC and relocated to a safer location in main Uri town, about two dozen civilians trapped in their homes in twin hamlets of Sikikote and Churanda were rescued by the police using an ambulance on Saturday. “We’re trying to take the remaining civilians also out of the affected villages,” he said.

Another official said that in all about 100 people were rescued by the police and the civil administration on Saturday. Acting on instructions from Deputy Commissioner of Baramulla, the local administration in Uri has established control room in the area for the affected people.

Sub-district magistrate D. Sagar, who, along with the SDPO, is overseeing the rescue operation said that apart from helping the people to relocate to safer locations every precaution is being taken to ensure no physical harm comes to civilians. “Four to five residential houses have suffered extensive damage after these were hit by mortar shells but, fortunately, there are no casualties,” he said.