JAMMU:
Two people were killed and nine others injured as Pakistani Rangers resumed unprovoked mortar shelling and small-arms fire on forward Indian positions along the international border in R S Pura, Arnia and Ramgarh sectors for the second day. The firing resumed after a night-long lull.
According to sources, among the deceased are Bachno Devi of Sai Khurd and Sunil Kumar alias Johny of Korotana in RS Pura sector. The injured have been rushed to a hospital, sources added.
Official sources said firing from across the border restarted at around 6.45 am and it continued along the entire border right from R S Pura in Jammu district to Basantar river in Samba district. Border Security Force personnel were retaliating strongly and effectively, sources said. Apart from forward Border Out Posts (BOPs), the Rangers were targeting civilian areas, causing panic among villagers living near the international border, sources said.
Since Wednesday night, a BSF constable and a teenaged girl were killed and seven people, including three members of a family, were injured at different locations along the border in unprovoked mortar shelling by Pak Rangers. In retaliation by the BSF, two Pakistani mortar positions were destroyed and heavy loss of life and property was inflicted across the border, BSF Director General K K Sharma said.
BSF personnel carry out retaliatory firing along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources put the number of casualties on the Pakistan side at 17 including many Rangers. However, Pakistan’s Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), an official media wing of Pakistani troops and Rangers, said that two women were killed and five people injured in cross-border firing along the “working boundary”, in Sialkot and Chaprar sector. It accused Indian forces of resorting to unprovoked firing targeting civilian population in Kundanpur, Chaprar, Sialkot sector on Pakistan side.
Accusing Rangers of always initiating unprovoked ceasefire violation along the border, Director General BSF K K Sharma had said that he has asked his troops to retaliate with “their full force” and “teach a lesson” to Pakistan. He had described the situation on the border as “tense”.
