Pak Shelling Kills 12 Civilians in J&K's Poonch; Nearly 60 are Injured

SRINAGAR: At least 15 residents, including two women and four children were killed, and nearly 60 others injured as Pakistani troops targeted Indian forward positions and civilian areas at several places along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir with heavy artillery fire early on Wednesday.

The pounding with 122 mm artillery guns and other variants left a trail of destruction with several houses reduced to rubble from Poonch to Uri sector in Baramulla district to Karnah-Keran in neighbouring Kupwara. It also prompted hundreds of families living near the de facto border to abandon their homes and relocate to safer places. Some defence installations also suffered damage, the reports said.

An artillery shell fired from across the border hit Poonch's Central Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Sahib. Three Sikhs including preacher Amrik Singh were killed.

Officials said that soon after the Indian armed forces carried out 'Operation Sindoor', the Pakistani Army and Rangers resorted to arbitrary firing including artillery shelling from posts across the LoC and IB opposite J&K.

The Indian Army said that innocent civilians lost their lives in “indiscriminate” firing and shelling" by the Pakistan troops and that it is responding in "proportionate manner."

The worst hit was Poonch where the 15 deaths took place and scores of residential houses and other structures were damaged in the Pakistani shelling.

The dead include two women, a minor brother-sister duo and two other children: Muhammad Zain Khan, 10, and his sister Zoya Khan, 12, Maryam Khatoon, 7 and Vihaan Bhargav, 13.

However, a report put the death toll at 14, identifying two other victims as Muhammad Adil and Saleem Hussain who were caught in cross border shelling in Sagra and Balakot villages of the Mendhar area of Poonch, respectively. The other deaths took place mainly in the Poonch city which is located about 8 kilometers south of the LoC and its neighbourhood.

The Army sources said that the Pakistani troops initially fired artillery in the Bhimber Gali (pass) in Poonch- Rajouri region and then the ceasefire violation escalated with shelling spreading to other areas along the LoC including Akhnoor, Sunderbani, Naushera, Uri and Karnah-Keran and in Pargwal sector of the IB. The shelling has been particularly intense in areas like Chanakan-da-Bagh (near Poonch city), Krishna Ghati, Shahpur, Gulpar, Kerni, Mankote, Mendhar and Laam, the sources added. In the Mendhar area, several artillery shells landed in populated areas including Sagra, Balakot and Sadaran, causing mayhem.

Reports said that most of the deaths took place when the victims’ homes were hit by shells. A witness told this newspaper over the phone from Poonch that one of the artillery shells landed on the campus of Jamia Zia Ul Uloom Islamic seminary, killing a teacher Muhammad Iqbal. He died of shrapnel wounds, he said.

A J&K forest department office and several stationery vehicles at the local bus stand were also damaged while an artillery shell fell just outside the field office of the United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). The UNMOGIP is a peacekeeping mission established in 1949 to monitor and report any development in connection with the military situation and to investigate alleged ceasefire violations along the LoC.

The Uri sector of Baramulla district and Karnah-Keran in neighbouring Kupwara also saw private homes and other properties including a mosque being hit in the artillery shelling, leaving more than 15 residents injured and a trail of destruction over the scattered hillside villages.

Reports said that eleven people including four children and a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) constable Manoj Kumar were injured after Pakistani shells landed in civilian areas such as Salamabad, Kalgie, and Gingal. At least, 23 civilian structures, including 16 residential houses and seven vehicles were damaged when hit by shells whereas the windowpanes of several other homes were broken as mortars exploded in proximity. A video of burning homes in Karnah soon went viral on social media. Three more persons were injured in Rajouri district.

The locals said over the phone that they faced a tough time in evacuating the injured to hospitals as the artillery shells continued to rain on the villages and Poonch city. They said that though the two armies had been exchanging nightly small arms fire in various sectors of both the LoC and the IB for the past two weeks, it was for the first time in this latest spell of cross-border skirmishes that the artillery guns were used and that the shelling from the Pakistani side intensified after India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’.