Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 12: As tensions escalated on the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) with Pakistan violating ceasefire for fifth time in past three days, Director General of BSF Subhash Joshi and Special DG BSF (West) Rajdeep Singh air dashed here and visited forward areas to review the situation. Newly appointed IG BSF Jammu Frontiers, SS Tomar accompanied them.
The top BSF officers visited forward areas of the IB from Samba to Kanachak sectors, which have been witnessing frequent ceasefire violations from Pakistan side. One BSF jawan has been killed and two others were injured in continued firing by the Pakistani Rangers in Hiranagar, Ramgarh and Kanachak sectors in the past few days.
Mr Joshi and other BSF officials inter-acted with the field commanders and jawans of the BSF deployed at forward areas along the IB and called upon them to give effective reply to Pakistan firing. They stressed upon the security personnel to maintain strict surveillance on the IB to thwart infiltration attempts by the militants on the eve of Independence Day.
The BSF DG and Special DG reviewed the situation with senior officers especially about spurt in ceasefire violations and presence of militants on Pakistan side across the IB.
The two BSF officers flew back to New Delhi this evening. They also took in their special helicopter the BSF jawan Pawan Kumar, who was injured in Pakistan firing at Alfa Machail post in Kanachak sector yesterday.
Meanwhile, escalating border tension, Pakistani troops today violated the ceasefire for the fifth time in the last three days by targeting forward Indian posts along the LoC in Poonch district with mortar shells, rockets and small arms firing.
Indian troops, guarding the borderline, took positions and retaliated resulting in heavy exchanges.
“Pakistan troops opened heavy firing with small arms, mortar shells and rockets on Indian forward posts along LoC in Poonch and Durga Battalion areas at Digwar, Krishna Ghati and Mankote around 1.50 am in wee hours of today”, official sources said.
“It was yet another ceasefire violation by Pakistan”, they said, adding the firing took place from 1.50 am to 6 am. After a long time some bullets and shells also fell in the houses of local people living in the forward areas. Pakistan also used heavy fire arms. An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was also spotted along the LoC, sources said.
There was no loss of life or injury to anyone in the Pakistani firing, sources said.
Pakistani troops fired at 11 posts in Digwar, Mankote and Durga Battalion areas along the LoC in Poonch.
This is fifth ceasefire violation by Pakistan troops in the past three days.
Pakistani troops had fired at Durga Battalion area with small arms firing and mortars along LoC in Poonch last night. The firing continued for three hours and Army troops from this side retaliated, he said.
Pakistan troops had also opened small arms firing at Indian posts in Balakote-Mendhar forward belt of Poonch district last night.
On Saturday last, Pakistani troops had targeted several Indian posts by firing 7000 rounds of ammunition and mortar shells along LoC in Poonch district.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan military today claimed that a youth was killed in firing by the Indian Army across the LoC.
“Indian forces resorted to unprovoked firing at three places,” a military official said in Islamabad.
He said an Indian mortar shell hit a house in Donga Gambhir in Rawlakote opposite Poonch sector and killed a young man while his sister was severely injured.
Meanwhile, there were reports of unprovoked firing by Pakistani troops on Indian positions along Line of Control in Poonch and International Border in Samba sector, late this evening.
Within hours of ceasefire violation, the Pakistani troops resumed heavy firing towards Indian positions along LoC in Mendhar Battalion area, Balakot sector and Hamirpur in Poonch forcing the Indian jawans to retaliate.
The firing resumed around 9.20 pm at Mendhar Battalion and around 1.15 p.m at Balakot and Hamirpur. Initially, the Pakistani troops used Light automatic weaponry but as soon as the Indian jawans retaliated, heavy weapons including MMG Mortars were used by the former.
The fierce firefighting along LoC on these three points was still going on till last reports came in. However, there were no casualties so far on either side.
Samba sector also witnessed unprovoked firing from across the International Border this evening when Pakistani Rangers opened fire on Indian positions at Kotha Post. The alert jawans effectively retaliated the Pakistani action and exchange of fire took place for some time while there were no reports of any damage on either side.
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