Army jawan, civilian killed in Pakistan firing along LoC

SRINAGAR: An Army jawan and a woman resident were killed and another wounded on Monday after Pakistani troops pounded several Indian posts and civilian areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch and Rajouri districts, using small arms and mortar bombs.

The Army said that the ceasefire violations 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 violations 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 heavy Pakistani firing and shelling.

Pakistan violated ceasefire 60 times: Army
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 BSF and the Army authorities said that there have been more than 60 ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops along the LoC and IB in Jammu and Kashmir since surgical strikes against alleged terror launch-pads in Pakistan occupied Kashmir conducted by the Army in last week of September.

Meanwhile, three infiltration bids by heavily- armed terrorists, aided by cover fire by Pakistani troops, were foiled in the past 36 hours along the International Border (IB) in Hiranagar sector of Jammu and Kashmir, BSF said on Monday.