Woman killed and soldier injured in India-Pak small arms firing at LoC

SRINAGAR: Indian and Pakistani troops on Thursday again exchanged heavy small arms and mortar fire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district. One woman resident was killed, an off-duty soldier was critically injured and another woman was injured in the “unprovoked” Pakistani shelling, the officials said.

Defence spokesman Lt. Col. Davendra Anand said in Jammu that Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire agreement by initiating unprovoked shelling of mortars and firing by small arms in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch early Thursday.

The shelling and firing, he said, started at 6 am and continued for one hour. “The own forces (Indian troops) retaliated strongly and effectively. Firing stopped at about 7 am,” he said.

The cross-LoC shelling and firing resumed in the same sector in the afternoon. The Army said that the Pakistani troops again resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling at 1 pm and that the Indian troops responded to it “strongly and befittingly”.