Srinagar: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat has closeted with senior regional commanders in Srinagar to review the security situation and operational preparedness of the armed forces posted in the hinterland and along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.
His daylong visit of the restive Kashmir Valley incidentally comes on a day when the LoC has once again witnessed flare up with troops exchanging heavy small and medium weapons fire since Thursday morning.
Earlier on Thursday morning, a General Engineering Reserve Force(GREF) labourer was killed and two others including a BSF jawan were injured in what the officials said was unprovoked firing by the Pakistani troops at the Indian forward posts along the LoC in Rajouri and Poonch districts of the State.
The Army said it retaliated to the ceasefire violations.
In Islamabad, the Pakistani authorities said three civilians were injured as Indian troops resorted to ‘unprovoked firing’ in Battal, Jandrot and Hotspring sectors of the LoC and that the Pakistani troops ‘effectively responded to Indian firing’.
A defence spokesman in Srinagar said that General Rawat held a meeting with the Srinagar-based 15 (Chinar) Corps Commander Lt Gen JS Sandhu and other senior army officers in Badamibagh Cantonment ‘to review the security situation and operational preparedness in the Valley’.
The spokesman added that Gen Rawat was briefed by Corps Commander and other top officers about the situation in the Valley, especially after killing of top Hizbul-Mujahideen commander Sabzar Ahmed Bhat and also about that prevailing along the LoC in the wake of reports of activity at infiltration launch pads on the other side of the de facto border.
