JAMMU, JULY 13: Over 100 Pakistani soldiers have been killed during the past week in the Poonch-Rajouri sector, even as de-escalation process has been initiated in the Kargil sector. Two civilians were killed and three others injured, one of them seriously, in Palanwala area in Jammu region.There has been a sharp increase in the mortar shelling and other heavy weapons fire all along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu, Rajouri and Poonch district in the past week.A defence spokesman here also admitted that there was considerably heavy mortar shelling and other weapons fire by Pakistani troops along the LoC in Palanwala and Nowshera areas. However, unprovoked fire from across the border had decreased at other places in Rajouri and Poonch district since morning.Besides, the killing of Pak soldiers, the Army had also blown up the battalion headquarters of Pakistani troops, an office of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and a number of its launching pads used for pushing militants over to this side of theborder.However, the casualties on the Indian side, according to official sources, are not more than a dozen during the period. These include civilians living near the border, they added.They were using all kinds of weaponry, except heavy artillery guns, to target the forward Indian defence locations and civilian areas near the border in the region. Nearly one lakh people have so far migrated from their native places near the Indo-Pak border, especially Palanwala, Jourian and Pargwal areas, in the wake of unprovoked Pakistani firing.Though there has not been any migration from border areas in Rajouri and Poonch districts, there has been collateral damage to property and casualties among civilians, sources added. The agricultural activities all along the International Border and LoC in Jammu region have been suspended ever since the outbreak of hostilities in Kargil two months ago.Senior defence and police officials feel that Pakistani troops may try to escalate the situation along the LoC in Jammuregion as, unlike Kargil, they cannot afford to have peace on this frontier to keep the militancy alive in the State. In this connection, they referred to the recent firing of even missiles by Pakistani troops in Palanwala and Jourian areas, as also their repeated intrusion bids along with large groups of militants in Rajouri and Poonch districts under the cover of heavy mortar shelling.The mortar shelling had stepped up all along the border following the recapture of Tiger Hills by the Indian Army and the announcement of Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif to withdraw troops from Kargil, a defence spokesman said. Though Pakistani troops used to resort to mortar shelling and other arms fire along the LoC in Jammu region earlier also, their use at such a large scale had come for the first time after 1971 war, he added.``Kargil may be peaceful, but the focus will definitely shift to Rajouri and Poonch districts in near future,'' a senior police official said. Substantiating this, he said that while theinvolvement of Pakistani troops in Kargil was exposed to the world community, the situation was quite different in Rajouri and Poonch.Unlike Kargil, the Pakistani troops had been only pushing armed militants over to this side of the border in Rajouri and Poonch districts. They need not cross the LoC as they can have direct control over militants even while sitting in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), he added.
