Army jawan killed, four others injured in Pak shelling in LoC's Krishna Ghati sector

Srinagar: An Army jawans was killed and four others, including a lieutenant and a junior commissioned officer, were wounded in Pakistani firing and mortar shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir Kashmir’s in Poonch district on Tuesday.

The Army said that the Pakistani troops resorted to heavy firing and mortar shelling on Indian forward posts in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch’s Mendhar area on Tuesday morning. The Indian troops retaliated by using same calibre weapons and the exchanges continued for some time, it added.

Reports from Poonch confirmed the facing armies have traded heavy fire and shelling in Krishna Ghati sector along the de facto border. Officials said that the injured officer and soldiers were airlifted to Command Hospital in the garrison town of Udhampur for specialized treatment where a soldier, identified as Sepoy Mustapure Shubham Suryakant, succumbed.

20-year-old Sepoy Suryakant was a resident of Konerwadi village in Parbhani district of Maharashtra. “The nation will always remain indebted to him for his supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty,” defence spokesman Col. N N Joshi said. Suryakant is survived by his mother Sunita.

The spokesman said that the it were the Pakistani troops who initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from 7 am using small arms, automatic weapons and mortar shells. “Indian Army has retaliated strongly, effectively and proportionately to the unprovoked ceasefire violation,” he said.