Srinagar: An Army captain and three jawans were killed and one more wounded when Pakistani troops opened fire on Indian forward posts in Bhimber Gali sector of the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri sector on Sunday.
At least two civilians were injured in the Poonch sector, officials said. The slain soldiers have been identified as Capt. Kapil Kundu, Riflemen Ram Avtar and Shubam Singh and Havaldar Roshan Lal. Lance Naik Iqbal Ahmed was injured.
The Indian Army said it was retaliating “strongly and effectively”. Fierce artillery exchanges were underway in this section and some adjoining areas of the de facto border when reports last came in.
“The situation is very tense,” said Rajouri’s deputy commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudhary.
The exchanges along the LoC have come ahead of Pakistan’s observing ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ on Monday. For past many years, Pakistan has been observing February 5 as a day to show solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Apart from announcing a national holiday, Islamabad has said that special cultural programmes and festivals will be held on Monday to mark the ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’.
In Jammu, officials said that two teenagers were also injured in the latest violation of November 2003 ceasefire understanding as some of the mortar shells fired from across the LoC landed in civilians areas of Rajouri and Poonch district.
The cross-LoC firing was reported from Poonch’s Shahpur sector on Sunday morning. It continued intermittently during the rest of the day and the Indian troops retaliated by using the same calibre weapons, the officials said.
The injured civilians were identified as Shahnaz Bano (15) and Yasin Arif (14), residents of Islamabad village of Poonch.
The officials said that this was the second time in three days that the Pakistani troops targeted the Indian forward posts and civilian areas in Poonch, using automatic weapons and mortars. The last time, the Pakistani troops had opened fire at about a dozen places in Poonch’s Balakote sector.
A defence spokesman said in Jammu that apart from Rajouri’s Bhimber Gali sector and Poonch’s Shahpur sector, the firing and shelling was also reported in Manjakote sector of Rajouri on Sunday.
“The Pakistani troops initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from small arms, automatics and mortars in these sectors at intervals on Sunday. The Indian Army has retaliated strongly and effectively,” the spokesman said.
In January, as many as seven civilians and six Army and BSF jawans were killed and dozens injured, mostly civilians, in the ceasefire violations both along the LoC and the International Border (IB) in the Jammu region.
The Pakistani authorities had also reported the death of more than half a dozen civilians on their side of the divide line in Indian firing and shelling and alleged that it were the Indian Army and the BSF who initiated firing on each occasion.
The clashes had prompted the authorities to close more than 300 schools situated close to the IB and the LoC in the Jammu region’s Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Rajouri and Poonch districts. Also, thousands of people living in close proximity of the border were shifted to safer locations.
The latest cross-LoC firing and shelling came a day after Union home minister, Rajnath Singh had said that he has giving standing orders to the Indian Army and the BSF to fire limitless bullets in retaliation of any ceasefire violations by Pakistan.
He told an election rally in Barjala in Agartala, “I have given standing orders to our forces to shoot limitless bullets to retaliate a single fire on our territory by the Pakistani forces.”
He had, however, also said, “We want to live with peace and harmony with our all neighbours… but most unfortunately, Pakistan is trying to tear down Jammu and Kashmir and continue attacks on our forces and Indian territory.”
