Pak fires mortars on three Indian posts in Akhnoor

Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 1

There has been no let-up in border firing as Pakistan Rangers shelled forward Indian posts along the international border (IB) in the Akhnoor sector, some 35 km northwest of Jammu, this morning.

The Rangers, who fired 82-mm mortars, targeted three Indian posts, prompting the BSF to retaliate in equal measure. The BSF has the operational responsibility of 198 km-long international border from Kathua to the Chicken Neck area of the Akhnoor subdivision. “Pakistani Rangers today violated the ceasefire by resorting to small-arm firing and then switched over to mortar shelling on our border outposts in the Akhnoor sector,” said a BSF officer.

Three border outposts (BOPs) of the BSF were targeted in the firing, he added. “It all started around 10.40 am today when Rangers resorted to unprovoked small-arm fire and then they started firing mortar shells on our BoPs,” he said. “Our men guarding the border also retaliated and the exchanges continued till 11.40 am,” he added.

“There was no loss of life or injury to anyone in the Pakistani firing,” he said.

Intelligence sources confided to The Tribune that the Indian posts that were targeted by the Rangers were in the Pargwal and Kanachak areas of Jammu district. However, forward villages were not targeted by the Rangers, they added. “They fired automatic weapons and heavy machine guns. The BSF retaliated effectively using the same calibre weapons,” they added.

Pakistani troops had violated the ceasefire four times on July 29 and July 30 along the LoC. There have been three incidents of sniper attacks by Pakistani troops along the LoC in July. An Army jawan was killed in Poonch and two BSF jawans were killed in similar incidents along the LoC in the Kashmir valley. 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. Since July 15 there have been regular firing and shelling on the frontiers of the state.