Pakistan Army violates ceasefire along LoC in J&K

The Pakistan Army resorted to heavy shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.

Reports said early in the morning, Pakistan Army violated the ceasefire in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch and then in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district.

Defence spokesperson Lt Col Devender Anand said that at about 3:30 am, the Pakistan Army resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and mortar shells along the LoC in the Krishna Ghati sector.

“Again, at about 7:20 am, the Pakistan army resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation in Nowshera sector of Rajouri,” he said and added that the Indian Army is retaliating befittingly to the unprovoked firing.

There has been a huge surge in ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir this year with 1547 instances reported till May 15. Pakistani troops had made the highest number of ceasefire violations since 2003 along the J&K border in 2019, amounting to over 3,200 instances or an average of nine such violations daily.

The government of India, led by the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had entered into a border ceasefire agreement with Pakistan along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir on November 26, 2003. However, according to officials, shelling and firing by Pakistani troops since last year is so heavy that it has virtually made the 2003 truce redundant.

An official in the security grid said that the ceasefire violations are expected to increase in the coming months as summer is the peak infiltration period from across the LoC in J&K. He said besides helping infiltration, Pakistani troops repeatedly target forward posts and villages along the LoC and the international border (IB) to create a fear psychosis among the people.

India shares a 3,323-km long border with Pakistan, of which 221 km of the IB and 740 km of the LoC fall in Jammu and Kashmir.