Pak Ceasefire Violation: J&K Official, Security Personnel, Civilians Killed

Srinagar: Seven more persons including a senior government official and two security personnel were killed and about twenty others injured in the Pakistani artillery shelling in the frontier regions of Jammu and Kashmir early Saturday morning.

Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, while confirming the death of the Additional District Development Commissioner of Rajouri Raj Kumar Thapa in the Pakistani shelling said in a post on 'X', "Devastating news from Rajouri. We have lost a dedicated officer of the J&K Administration Services. Just yesterday he was accompanying the Deputy CM around the district & attended the online meeting I chaired. Today the residence of the officer was hit by Pak shelling as they targeted Rajouri town killing our Additional District Development Commissioner Sh Raj Kumar Thappa. I’ve no words to express my shock & sadness at this terrible loss of life. May his soul rest in peace."

Mr. Thapa was killed and two of his staff were injured when a mortar shell fired from across the Line on Control (LoC) landed in his official residence in the Rajouri town.

A two-year-old girl Asha Noor and 33-year-old Muhammad Shuaib, son of Muhammad Shahid, both residents of Uttar Pradesh, were killed in the shelling elsewhere in the town, the police sources said, adding that the child’s mother and father were critically injured and have been evacuated to hospital.

A woman identified as Rashida Bi wife of Munshi Khan was killed in the shelling at Keri Kangra in the Mendhar area of frontier Poonch district while Ashok Kumar son of Baldev Raj of Bidipur Jatta village died in RS Pura area of the Jammu district, the officials said.

A Border Security Force (BSF) official laid down his life and seven other jawans were injured in Pakistani firing along the IB in the R S Pura sector, officials said. A senior BSF officer said sub-inspector Mohammed Imteyaz made the supreme sacrifice while gallantly leading from the front.

A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) of the Army Subedar Major Pawan Kumar, a resident of Shahpur in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, was killed in Pakistani shelling in Poonch on Saturday morning.

With these killings, the death toll in the cross-border shelling in J&K areas in the past three days has risen to 22 -twenty civilians including three women and five children and a JCO non-commissioned officer (Lance Naik) of the Indian Army Dinesh Kumar.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah visited the family of Mr. Thapa and while expressing profound grief over the loss and extended his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved, he acknowledged the officer’s outstanding dedication and supreme sacrifice. “His service and sacrifice will never be forgotten. The Government stands firmly with his family in this hour of grief,” the Chief Minister said.