JOIN USA Border Security Force (BSF) personnel was killed and another injured on Wednesday when Pakistani border guards violated ceasefire along the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir by firing on Indian positions along the border.
A BSF official told Deccan Herald that Pakistani Rangers opened heavy fire on a routine patrol party in the Suchetgarh sector in Jammu's Samba district.
“It was the second ceasefire violation in 24 hours, in which one of our jawans was killed and another was injured,” he said, adding that the BSF gave a befitting reply, making it a heavy exchange of fire.
The deceased has been identified as Constable Sri Ram Gowria. The BSF personnel's strong retaliation to the “unprovoked and premeditated” Pakistani firing killed four personnel from the neighbouring country.
Pakistani newspaper “Dawn” reported that two of them as Chenab Rangers personnel Naik Riaz Shakar and Lance Naik Safdar.
“The firing stopped in the evening when the Pakistan Rangers request for ceasefire by waving a white flag. The situation has been totally under control since then,” BSF Director General D K Pathak told Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh during a briefing.
“Give (them) a suitable and appropriate reply for any unprovoked firing,” Singh had told the BSF chief.
Sources said Pakistan requested the BSF to stop firing to allow lifting of their soldiers' bodies. A day before the sudden flare-up in the Samba sector, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had said the Army has been instructed to retaliate with double force in case of firing from the Pakistani side.
“I would say, don't agitate, react appropriately but without holding back. When something happens, retaliate with double the force,” he said while talking to the journalists in the capital on Tuesday.
For any terrorist attack on Army posts, the instructions were to neutralise them, he said. This also happened to be the sixth ceasefire violation by Pakistan over the past week. There have been reports of ceasefire violations in other areas of Samba and Kathua districts too.