Jawan killed in Pak sniper firing

An Army jawan was killed in sniper fire from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Machael sector of J&K’s Kupwara district on Wednesday afternoon.

The Army’s Udhampur-based Northern Command tweeted, “One soldier martyred in Pak sniping at Machael Sector. In retaliation, fire assault with heavy weapons being directed on many Pak posts.”

Earlier on Tuesday, two Army jawans were killed and five others wounded when a 120-mm mortar bomb fired by the Pakistani troops landed and exploded near an Army truck in Nausheha sector along the de facto border in Rajouri district.

Meanwhile, two unidentified militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Darsu area of northwestern Baramulla district, defence spokesperson Colonel Rajesh Kalia here said. He added that the militants, believed to be foreigners, were killed after they were confronted by the security forces during a cordon-and-search operation in the village, about 60-kms from here. The operation was jointly launched by the Army, the local police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and the CRPF on specific information about presence of militants in the village, the police officials here said. They added that the militant duo holed up in a private house opened fire towards the security forces as they zeroed in on the premises and that in the retaliatory fire, both were killed.

The Army identified the jawans killed in Pakistani firing in Naushehra sector on Wednesday as Naiks H.K. Yadava and Preme Singh. Yadav was a resident of Abbaspur village in Balia district of Uttar Pradesh and Singh was from village Sahar in Benar district of Rajasthan.

Five other jawans who were injured in the incident have been identified as Havaldars Lakhan Singh and S. Ramaiya, Sepoys R. Naresh, Parmal Sanjay Kumar and Jadhav Laxman. Their condition was said to be stable.

Heavy exchanges of small and medium weapons fire and mortar shelling has been going on at several places along the 740-km long LoC, mainly in Rajouri and Poonch districts, for the past few days. India on Wednesday summoned Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner to convey strong concern on continued ceasefire violations along the LoC and also the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir and endangering safety of its high commission officials in Islamabad by publicly announcing their names after accusing them of being intelligence operatives.

In Islamabad, his counterpart J.P. Singh was for the sixth time in over two weeks summoned by the neighbouring country’s Director General (South Asia & SAARC), Dr Mohammad Faisal, to lodge a “strong protest” over alleged “unprovoked” firing by Indian forces along the LoC. The authorities in Muzaffarabad had said on Yuesday that four civilians, including a mother-daughter duo, were killed and two others injured in the Indian firing in Battal sector of PoK.

The Army and the Border Security Force (BSF) officials said that Pakistan Rangers (Punjab) and the army have violated the November 2003 ceasefire agreement both along the LoC and the IB, called ‘working boundary’ by Islamabad over 100 times since September 29 when the Indian Army said it carried out surgical strikes against the militant launch-pads across the LoC. A total of 20 people including 12 civilians and 8 Army and BSF jawans have been killed and more than eighty-five wounded in Pakistani shelling and firing along IB and LoC in Jammu region since October 21. Half a dozen more jawans laid down their lives while retaliating to Pakistani firing or fighting infiltrating militants along the LoC in Kashmir Valley during this period. In Islamabad, the Pakistani authorities alleged that India troops and border guards committed 222 ceasefire violations, so far, this year including 184 on the LoC and 38 on the ‘Working Boundary’ (IB). They added that as many as 26 civilians were killed and 107 others injured in the Indian firing and shelling.