Three civilians injured in fresh ceasefire violation along border

 At least three civilians were injured when Pakistani troops resumed shelling and firing on Indian forward posts and civilian areas along the International Border in Arnia and R S Pura sectors of Jammu district on Thursday.

Reports said after a three-day lull, Pakistani Rangers fired 82 mm and 120 mm mortar shells at border outposts (BoPs) and civilian areas from midnight and by 5 am it got intensified. With BSF troops retaliating, the firing and shelling were going on in both the sectors at intermittent intervals.

A police official three civilians, including a husband-wife duo, sustained splinter injuries in the overnight firing in Jeora Farm of Arnia. Several houses were damaged and dozens of cattle were also killed in Pakistani firing, forcing hundreds of people to flee the area, he said.

Authorities also ordered the closure of schools located within five kilometres from the border in view of fresh shelling. On Wednesday an Army soldier was killed and three others injured in sniper fire from the Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Keran sector of north Kashmir's Kupwara district.

Earlier last week a BSF trooper and a civilian were killed and over a dozen others were injured in the shelling and firing by Pakistani troops in Arnia sector and Poonch between September 13 and September 18.

There have been hundreds of violations of the 2003 ceasefire agreement by the Pakistan along the LoC and the International Border in J&K since Indian army carried surgical strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan occupied Kashmir on September 29 last year.

The latest ceasefire violations came just days after J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti appealed for peace on borders and sought an end to hostilities between India and Pakistan saying it is the people of the State who suffer the brunt of these skirmishes.