Army jawan, woman among those killed in Pak ceasefire violation on Monday
Srinagar: An Army jawan and a woman resident were killed and another wounded on Monday after Pakistani troops pounded several Indian posts and civilians areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch and Rajouri districts, using small arms and mortar bombs.
In Muzaffarabad, the authorities said that, at least, four civilians including a woman were killed and six others were injured in the Indian firing at different locations in Nakyal sector of PoK.
The Army said that the ceasefire violations by the Pakistani troops are being retaliated with massive fire assault.
It added that the Pakistani troops violated the November 2003 ceasefire agreement by resorting to unprovoked firing and shelling on Indian positions and villages in the twin frontier districts since Monday morning.
“Pakistani troops indulged in unprovoked ceasefire violation from 9 am in the Balakote sector using 120 mm and 82 mm mortars, automatic and small arms,” a spokesman of the Army’s Udhampur-based Northern Command said.
He said that in the afternoon several areas including Mendhar, Mankot, Tarkundi and Balakote areas of Poonch and Rajouri districts came under heaving Pakistan firing and shelling.
The Army did not disclose the name of the slain soldier saying it has to follow the rule of informing his family first.
Officials said that two women injured in the Pakistan firing were rushed to Jammu’s Government Medical College Hospital where one of them succumbed later during the day.
She has been identified as 50-year-old Rubina Kausar, a resident of Tarkundi of Rajouri district.
The 198-km stretch of International Border (IB) between Paharpur in Kathua district and Chicken’s Neck corridor in south of Akhnoor sector where the LoC begins where a lull had prevailed for a couple of days witnessed skirmishes between Border Security Force (BSF) and Pakistan Rangers again on Sunday.
The BSF alleged that the Pakistan border guards resorted to unprovoked small arms firing and mortar shelling along the IB in Samba, Kathua and Jammu districts, prompting BSF to retaliate.
The BSF and the Army authorities said that there have been more than sixty ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops along the LoC and IB in Jammu and Kashmir since surgical strikes against alleged terror launch-pads in PoK conducted by the Army in last week of September.
In all thirteen people, including four civilians, and nine Army and BSF personnel have been killed and over 40 people, mostly civilians, injured in the incidents.
In Islamabad, the Pakistani authorities on Monday said that, at least, six civilians have been killed and 21 injured as a result of “Indian violations” along the LoC and the ‘Working Boundary’ as the stretch of the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir is referred to by it in less than a week.
Pakistan’s Intern-Services Public Relations (ISPR) accused the Indian troops of resorted to unprovoked firing along the LoC on Monday.
It said, “India yet again resorted to unprovoked firing on LoC in Kel, Nakyal and Jandrut sectors today. Pakistani troops are befittingly responding and targeting Indian posts.”
The ISPR in a statement also said that earlier on October 28, Indian firing on civilian population in Nakyal sector Chafrigahi village killed three people including a woman and a child and injured five others. On October 27, firing on Working Boundary in Chaprar and Harpal sectors and on the LoC in Bhimber sector resulted in the deaths of two civilians and injuries to nine, it said.
Meanwhile, the cross-LoC bus ‘Karvan-e-Aman’ could not operate between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad on Monday apparently due to tensions prevailing along the de facto border.
This is for the second consecutive week, when the peace bus, a major Confidence Building Measure (CBM) introduced on April 7, 2005 by India and Pakistan, was suspended. Last Monday, the bus could not operate due to official celebrations across the LoC in PoK over its ‘national day’.
