BSF jawan killed in Pak firing
Violating ceasefire for the third day, Pak targets Arnia sector of IB
A Border Security Force jawan was killed as the firing by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in violation of the November 2003 ceasefire agreement has spread to International Border (IB) in Jammu district of the State.
The officials said the Pakistan Rangers violated the ceasefire agreement for the third consecutive day between the intervening night of September 14 and 15 in Arnia sector of the IB, resulting into the death of BSF constable Bijender Bahadur. He was on duty at a forward post of the BSF in Arnia when the Pakistan Rangers fired mortars and also used small arms fire to target the Indian positions shortly after midnight.
They said that a bullet hit Bahadur on the left side of his abdomen and succumbed to injuries on the way to hospital. The BSF troops retaliated by using same calibre weapon.
“Our jawans retaliated strongly and befittingly using the same calibre weapons,” a BSF spokesman added. Intermittent exchanges continued till Friday morning, reports said.
The BSF said that Bahadur, 32, was a resident of Vidya Bhawan Naraypur village in Uttar Pradesh's Balia district. He is survived by his wife Sushmita Singh.
Earlier the LoC in neighbouring Poonch and Rajaouri districts witnessed repeated ceasefire violations by the Pakistan troops during past couple of weeks.
The Indian officials had said on Thursday that two
Pakistani soldiers were killed in retaliatory action by the BSF earlier during the day. They said the action came after three Indian jawans were injured in “unprovoked” firing and shelling by Pakistani troops along the IB and the LoC in Jammu and Poonch districts on Wednesday.
However, Pakistan had denied the charge and accused the Indian troops of initiating firing but along the LoC and the IB called ‘Working Boundary’ by it.
India’s deputy high commissioner, J.P. Singh, was summoned to Foreign Office in Islamabad by Pakistan’s director general (South Asia and SAARC), Dr. Mohammad Faisal who alleged “ceasefire violations” by Indian troops along the LoC which had resulted in the killing of two Pakistani civilians.
The firing, he was told, took place in Phulian sector on the Pakistani side of the de facto border and that also three persons including a woman were injured.