Pak violates ceasefire, shells Indian posts at LoC

Less than a fortnight after Pakistan promised to stop cross-border firing, its troops on Tuesday shelled Indian posts...

Less than a fortnight after Pakistan promised to stop cross-border firing, its troops on Tuesday shelled Indian posts, violating the ceasefire once again along the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir.Pakistani troops fired mortar shells and rocket projectile grenades and opened small arms firing on Indian posts along LoC in the Sabzian area of Poonch district around 11.45 pm on Monday, a senior army official said.

Around ten shells were intermittently fired for nearly half-an-hour, he said adding that these shells exploded away from the forward posts and there was no casualty on the Indian side. BSF troops of 192 battalion guarding the border did not retaliate. The ceasefire violation by Pakistan came less than a fortnight after both sides had decided to refrain from cross-border firing and shelling and preserve the sanctity of the four-year-old ceasefire along Indo-Pak border.

This was agreed at a two-day bi-annual meeting between Pakistan rangers and BSF at Lahore on October 16 during which Pakistan rangers Director General Lt Gen Mohammad Yaqoob Khan promised to Additional Director General BSF U K Bansal that there would be no ceasefire violations henceforth while acknowledging that there had been some violations earlier.

This is the 35th ceasefire violation since January this year and seventh in Sabzian sub-sector where two jawans were killed in September in Pakistan firing.

The ceasefire violation by Pakistan is aimed at infiltrating militants into Jammu and Kashmir to target forthcoming Assembly elections, officials said adding that troops at the border are foiling infiltration attempts. Security along LoC has been beefed up after Intelligence reports that several big groups of militants are waiting to enter Jammu and Kashmir, they said.

The Army has assessed that the Pakistani firing occurred whenever militant groups were making attempts to infiltrate into India and ceasefire violations could be a tactic of Pakistani troops to distract Indian forces along the LoC, officials added.

Over 132 infiltration bids have been reported in the last nine months from across the LoC in which 80 militants have been killed.