Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 10: Continuing ceasefire violations and firing mortars targeting civilian areas and forward posts of the Army along the Line of Control (LoC), Pakistan Army last night shifted firing from Sabzian sector to Balakote in Mendhar tehsil of Poonch district last night.
Official sources said Pakistan Army fired 60 mm mortars and resorted to firing with small and automatic fire arms in entire Balakote sector at 7.30 pm last night targeting civilian areas and Army posts. The troops from this side retaliated.
Exchange of shelling and firing continued for about two hours. However, there were no casualties or damage in the shelling and firing on the Indian side. The damage, if any, on the other side was not known.
Some of the mortar shells fell close to houses of the civilians but there was not much damage, sources said.
The Hamirpur and Sabzian sectors in Poonch have been targeted by Pakistani troops for the past eight days, possibly to facilitate infiltration from across the LoC. However, alert Army troops have not allowed designs of the militants and Pakistan Army to succeed.
Sources said the Pakistani troops wanted to push the militants into the Indian territory before August 15 to disturb the Independence Day celebrations but the Army has thwarted all infiltration attempts. Worthwhile to mention here that Army has also strengthened its position on the LoC to ensure that the militants didn’t manage to sneak into this side.
With this ceasefire violation, there have been 17 such incidents in the past nine days.
After a day-long lull, Pakistani troops resorted to firing from automatic weapons and mortar shells on forward post in Mandi-Sabzian sector in Poonch yesterday.
Apart from mortar shells and automatic weapons, Pakistani troops fired 120 mm mortars.
On August 7, an Army jawan was injured as Pakistani troops opened fire at villages and forward posts in Poonch district along the LoC for the third consecutive day today.
Pakistani troops had on August 6 resorted to intermittent firing with automatic weapons, rocket projectile grenades and mortar bombs along the LoC in Poonch district.
On August 5, Pakistani troops had violated the ceasefire twice and targeted forward posts and hamlets, in which three civilians were injured.
A youth was killed and two others, including a BSF jawan, were injured when Pakistani troops had targeted border out posts and hamlets along the International Border in 4 sectors of Kanachak, Pargwal, Tawi and R S Pura in Jammu district on August 4.
On August 2 and 3, Pakistani troops had violated the ceasefire four times by resorting to small arms firing in forward posts along LoC in Krishna Ghati, Mandi, Balakote and Pallanwalla sectors of Poonch and Jammu districts. There were two ceasefire violations on August 1.
There have been 18 ceasefire violations along the Indo-Pak border in July in which four persons, including three jawans, were killed and 14 others injured in Jammu and Kashmir.
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