Amid the recent incidents of violence in the areas falling in proximity of the LoC, the Commander of the Indian Army’s Nagrota (Jammu)-based 16 Corps- also called White Knight Corps - Lieutenant General Navin Sachdeva visited Rajouri to review the “hostile activities” along the LoC.
Srinagar: The Indian Army on Thursday said that the ceasefire along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir remains intact and continues to be observed as per the mutual understanding with the Pakistan Army. It said that no recent exchange of heavy-calibre weapon fire had occurred along the de facto border and that minor incidents are not unprecedented.
“While tensions have arisen due to stray incidents of cross-LoC firing and a suspected IED blast targeting an Indian patrol, these are being addressed through the established mechanism,” the Indian Army said. It added that concerns have been raised with the Pakistan Army at the appropriate level and the situation remains stable and under close monitoring, with the Indian Army maintaining a high state of alertness and dominating the LoC.
However, tensions reportedly returned to certain areas along the Line of Control (LoC) following a series of violent incidents including a ceasefire violation that claimed the lives of two Indian Army personnel and injured two others. Pakistan has claimed that two of its soldiers were injured in firing and a civilian died in an IED blast, blaming both these incidents on the Indian Army.
Indian security officials had on Wednesday accused the Pakistani troops of violating the ceasefire agreement by resorting to unprovoked firing on a forward post in the LoC’s Krishna Ghati sector in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch sector.
They had said that the act prompted a befitting response by the Indian Army and that though the extent of damage on the Pakistan side was not known immediately it was believed that the enemy forces suffered “heavy casualties”.
A day earlier, Army Captain Karamjit Singh Bakshi and Naik Mukesh and a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) Naik Mukesh were killed and another jawan was injured when an IED was detonated by suspected militants near the LoC in J&K Akhnoor sector. The incident prompted the Army to launch a massive search operation in the area to track down the assailants. The sources had said that the IED struck a patrolling party while it was moving near the LoC fence in Akhnoor’s Laleali area at around 3.50 pm on Tuesday.
On February 10, an Army Havildar had received a bullet wound after he was targeted from across the LoC in the Kalal area of the Nowshera sector in Rajouri district. The Army had said that NCO Puran Singh was targeted from across the de facto border while he was manning a forward post at Kalal in the LoC’s Keri sector by terrorists who were apparently waiting for an opportunity to sneak into the Indian side of the fence.
In the intervening night of February 4 and February 5, a land mine explosion took place in the Krishna Ghati. The Army believed that a few militants who were trying to sneak into J&K from PoJK were killed or injured in the blast but there was no confirmation of intending infiltrators suffering casualties from independent sources.
Pakistan media on Thursday quoted the country’s security sources as saying that India is orchestrating sabotage along the LoC and that its forces are actively involved in planting explosives, smuggling weapons, and inciting unrest in PoJK including the so-called Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Pakistani security officials have alleged that a ceasefire violation by Indian forces took place in the Dewa and Bagsar sectors of the LoC on February 12, resulting in injuries to two Pakistani soldiers. They claimed that earlier between February 4 and February 6 four IEDs were recovered in the Battal and Rawalakot sectors and during this an explosion took the life of a civilian, raising alarms about escalating tensions.
According to these reports, India’s activities coincide with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States, “suggesting an attempt to discredit Pakistan on the global stage by portraying it as a state sponsor of terrorism.”
