Army jawan from Punjab among 3 killed in ceasefire violation by Pak

Amir Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 20

Three people, including an Army jawan, were killed and six injured in firing by Pakistani troops along the International Border (IB) and Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu division for the third day on Saturday.

Nine persons have been killed so far in ceasefire violations over three days.

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An Army jawan was today killed after being hit by a bullet during cross-border firing in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district.

The Tribune staff photographer Inderjeet Singh had a narrow escape when shells landed near Jora farms where he was shooting the damage occurred to temporary sheds of Gujjars. 

A defence spokesman identified the slain soldier as sepoy Mandeep Singh (23), a resident of Alampur village of Sangroor in Punjab.

He said the Pakistani Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms and automatics form 0820 hours in Krishna Ghati sector, resulting in grievous injuries to Singh who later succumbed.

The Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively, the spokesman said.

The officials said two civilians, Gaura Ram (17) of Kapur R S Pura and Gour Singh (45) of Abdullian, were killed and five others injured in firing by Pakistani rangers along the IB in Jammu district.

A BSF spokesman said cross-border firing was underway in the area from Octroi to Chenab (Akhnoor) in Suchetgarh sector of R S Pura from this morning.

He said the firing in R S Pura sector stopped around 1.30 am but resumed again after four hours.

He said a BSF jawan in Pargwal sector was injured in the heavy firing and shelling and was later hospitalised.

The BSF is retaliating and the exchange of fire between the two sides was underway till the last reports were received.

A jawan of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) was injured in cross border shelling in Jammu, officials said. The jawan, constable Lallu Ram, was evacuated to a nearby hospital and was said to be stable.

The jawan, who belongs to the 14th battalion of the force, was deployed for rendering law and order duties along with the Jammu and Kashmir Police at the Kanachak police station, when he was hit by splinters of a mortar shell that landed in the area.

While a BSF jawan and a teenaged girl were killed on Thursday, four people--two civilians and one BSF jawan and an Army jawan--were killed and over 40 others, including two BSF personnel, injured in the Pakistani firing yesterday.

The heavy firing had forced thousands of border residents to flee their homes and authorities announced closure of educational institutions for three days along the LoC and IB.

Between 8,000 to 9,000 people living along the IB have migrated to safer places and most of them were living with their relatives, officials said.

Over 1,000 people are housed in camps in R S Pura, Samba and Kathua areas, they said. With PTI inputs