Srinagar: Two army jawans were killed in Pakistani army firing along the Line of Control (LoC) in Sunderbani area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district on Monday evening.
The officials said in Jammu on Tuesday that the Pakistani troops resorted to heavy mortar shelling at Battal in Khour sector, bordering Sunderbani. Two army jawans were killed in the firing which started at around 6 pm and continued for about one hour. The Indian troops, the officials said, retaliated “effectively”. A defence spokesman said, “Our jawans gave a very effective response to the unprovoked Pakistani shelling, leading to heavy exchanges”.
Though the Indian Army officials believed the Pakistani troops suffered “heavy casualties” in the retaliatory shelling, Islamabad has, so far, not reported any such incident on their side of the de facto border.
The cross-LoC clash comes a day after J&K Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in New Delhi to discuss with them security and political situation in the restive state and frequent firing incidents along the borders with Pakistan.
She sought frequent engagement at the highest political levels between India and Pakistan and also favored the idea that the top military leadership of the two countries should stay in touch with each other to minimise the level of tension across the borders saying “frequent skirmishes have resulted into huge suffering to tens of thousands of people in villages in close proximity to the borders”
The army has identified the slain jawans as Riflemen Vinod Singh and Jaki Sharma. It said they were grievously injured in the shelling from across the LoC and succumbed to their injuries at a medical facility later. Mr Singh, aged 24 years, belonged to village Danapur, Jaurian in Akhnoor area of J&K’s Jammu district and is survived by his father, Ajit Singh. The army had said that Indian troops retaliated effectively.
