Three killed, more than 30 injured in cross border firing in J&K

Srinagar: At least, three civilians were killed and 22 others wounded when Pakistani border guards targeted several bsf border outpots and civilian areas in Arnia and Ranbir Singh Pura Sectors along the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir overnight. Pakistani officials said that seven civilians died in the BSF firing on their side of the border.

BSF officials said that Pakistan Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing targeting its (BSF’s) border outposts (BOPS) and civilian areas shortly after midnight last night. “Initially, they used small arms but later on mortar bombs were fired on our posts and civilian areas,” a BSF spokesperson said in Jammu. He added that the BSF troops retaliated by firing same calibre weapons.

In Sialkot, Pakistan officials said that at least seven Pakistani civilians were killed and several others injured in the “unprovoked” firing and shelling by the BSF in Charwah, Harpal, Chaprar and Sucheetgarh sectors along what IB is known as working boundary across the border.  They said that the Punjab Rangers were responding with retaliatory fire since early Friday morning.

The BSF officials said that the Pakistani firing started shortly after midnight last night and the exchange of fire was underway as reports last came in. The two sides have clashed days before the heads of the BSF and Pakistan Rangers are scheduled to meet in New Delhi from September 9 to discuss the frequent cross-border skirmishes.

On August 25, a junior commissioner officer of the Army’s 3 Kumaon Rifles, Naib Subedar Krishna Singh, was killed in sniper rifle shot from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Kupwara’s Nowgam sector. Both the LoC and the IB have witnessed a series of violations of the November 2003 ceasefire agreement in the recent weeks, leaving half a dozen civilians and, at least, two BSF men dead. According to the Indian officials, there have been 51 violations of the ceasefire agreement by Pakistan in August and over 245 violations this year so far. The worst occurred on August 15 when a Pakistan mortar bomb hit a private car in Balakote area along the LoC in Poonch area killing five persons on board.

The police officials in Ranbir Singh Pura said that the latest Pakistani firing and shelling in this sector and neighbouring Arnia started around 1. 45 am and the villages which were hit include Kishanpur, Jora Form, Jugnu Chak, Nawapind, Harna, Sia, Abdullian and Chandu Chak. “The shelling was so heavy that the shells landed deep inside villages much away from IB”, said one of the police officers in the area.

Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Simrandeep Singh said two persons are dead and 16 others were injured. He said there were reports that another person has also been killed in the firing. However, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pawan Kotwal told PTI that three persons were killed in the firing.

The officers confirmed that the BSF jawans guarding the border retaliated resulting in heavy exchanges which were going on when the reports last came in from the area.

A spokesperson of Pakistan’s Punjab Rangers said in Sialkot the Indian firing has mostly harmed civilians. He added that the livestock belonging to residents of the areas hit in the firing has also been killed and several residential houses suffered damage.