Defence Minister Arun Jaitley puts onus on Pakistan to keep relations cordial

Accusing Pakistan of trying to create tension along the IB and the LoC, Mr Jaitley said the kind of environment it was generating between the two countries was certainly not going to help in normalising relations. He said the onus of creating a positive environment was on Pakistan, which was utterly failing to do so.

Speaking to this newspaper, BSF director-general D.K. Pathak said the trigger appears to be a clear design of the Pakistani forces to disrupt the Dussehra celebrations in the border villages, where festive activity was going on and the villagers were out of their houses.

The BSF chief is now camping in the area to oversee the BSF response, with top sources saying that Monday night will be critical for the Indian forces, who are fully geared up to retaliate to the repeated ceasefire violations.

The BSF has asked the civil administration to adopt all safety measures in the critical border areas and ask villagers not to step out of their houses for the time being. Those people who need to be evacuated will be moved to safer locations. Officials said the mortars landed on the rooftop of one of the houses in Arnia.