JCO killed as Pak flouts ceasefire in Nowgam

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 25

In the first ceasefire violation after the cancellation of the Indias-Pak National Security Adviser-level talks, a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) was killed in north Kashmir’s Nowgam sector.

This is the third ceasefire violation along the Line of Control (LoC) in Nowgam, 120 km northwest of Srinagar in the past 50 days. Two violations last month had left two BSF jawans dead.

The Army said the JCO, Naib Subedar Krishna Singh of 3 Kumaon regiment, was killed when Pakistani troops fired few sniper shots near the LoC in the Nowgam sector of the frontier Kupwara district.

“The JCO was critically wounded by the Pakistani sniper fire at 1 pm and he succumbed to his injuries later,” an Army spokesman said in Srinagar.

Sources said there was a brief exchange of fire between the two sides after the JCO was hit.

In the Nowgam sector, which is also a major route for militants to sneak into the Valley from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), there have been two ceasefire violations in July this year.

On July 9, BSF constable Krishan Kumar Dubey of 119 Battalion was killed in sniper fire in the same sector. Four day earlier, another BSF jawan was also killed in ceasefire violation in Nowgam. While there have been frequent ceasefire violations in the Jammu region along the LoC and the international border, the LoC in the Kashmir region has been relatively stable.

“The LoC in Kashmir region has been stable, even though attempts to infiltrate into Kashmir have been continuing,” a senior Army officer said.

India and Pakistan had agreed on the ceasefire along the LoC in 2003.

Box

Truce violations in Kashmir

2009: 4

2010: 4

2011: 3

2012: 10

2013: 21

2014: 9

2015: 6