7 injured in Pak shelling in Jammu

Three Pak armymen killed in retaliatory firing

Pakistani troops continued shelling and firing on civilian areas and border outposts (BoPs) along the Line of Control and International Border in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, injuring at least seven members of a family.

Sources said seven members of a family were injured after a mortar shell fired by Pakistani troops fell on a house in Suchetgarh sector of R S Pura in Jammu district on Tuesday evening.

All the injured were women and were admitted to Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu, they said.

Meanwhile, PTI reported that at least two-three Pakistani armymen were believed to have been killed in retaliatory firing by Indian troops in the Noushera sector of Rajouri district.

 Heavy exchange of fire, involving use of 82 mm and 120 mm mortar shells besides small arms, was still going on in the evening after it started at around 10 am.

Earlier, Pakistani troops resorted to firing on forward posts and civilian areas from 10 am along the LoC in Noushera sector of Rajouri district, confining the population inside the houses.

Apart from mortars, the Pakistan Army also resorted to firing with heavy machine guns (HMGs), an army official said, adding Indian troops were giving a “befitting response” to the ceasefire violation.

Reports said the army and the administration advised people along the LoC and IB not to move out of their houses. “People live in panic risking their lives as Pakistan troops targeted civilian areas with mortar shells.

Some of the civilians already shifted to the houses of their relatives or to safer areas, but the majority of the population was living in the villages,” reports added.

An eyewitness told DH over phone that people living in forward areas along the LoC and the IB continued to spend sleepless nights in view of intense shelling and firing by Pakistan.

On Monday, a BSF soldier and a six-year-old child were killed, while 10 people were injured after Pakistani troops targeted forward areas from Suchetgarh to Pargwal sectors in RS Pura sector of Jammu.