Six soldiers injured in Pak firing at LoC in J&K

At least six army men were injured when Pakistan resorted to unprovoked mortar shelling and small arms fire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.

Sources said that cross-LoC firing took place at a few forward locations in the Sunderbani sector. “Firing took place in the wee hours of Friday in which six personnel were injured,” they said and added Indian troops also retaliated.

On Thursday three Pakistan army personnel and four infiltrating militants were reportedly killed and two others injured in retaliatory action by Indian troops in the Balakote sector of Mendhar tehsil in neighboring Poonch district. Two Indian Army personnel were also injured in Pakistan shelling.

There have been repeated infiltration attempts by the militants with the help of Pakistani troops along the LoC in twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri even though both the countries are facing difficult situations due to the coronavirus crisis.

Last week Indian army had killed four militants including two members of Pakistan’s Border Action Team (BAT) and three Pakistani troopers while thwarting BAT action in the Poonch sector. Prior to that, the Pakistan army had fired a long-range heavy mortar shell targeting Poonch town.

There were a total of 646 incidents of ceasefire violations along the International Border (IB) as well as the LoC between January 1 and February 23 this year, Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik said last week.

Over 3,200 ceasefire violations by Pakistan troops were recorded in 2019. There is 198 km IB (International Border) and over 510 km of LoC with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.