Siblings killed as Pak violates peace at LoC

Civilian areas continue to be a target along the border

ON MONDAY, two minors were killed and 12 other civilians were injured after Pakistani troops shelled Army posts and civilian areas.

As firing across the Line of Control (LoC) continues, three Army jawans were injured in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district and a woman and her brother were killed in Abbaspur village of PoK on Wednesday.

A defence spokesman in Jammu said that Pakistani troops violated the November 2003 ceasefire agreement by resorting to unprovoked firing and shelling in various areas of Poonch including Laam sector, injuring three Army jawans.

“The Indian Army is retaliating effectively and the exchanges are still on,” he said adding that the firing was initiated by the Pakistani troops by targeting the Indian forward positions and civilian areas of Poonch with small and automatic weapons and mortars at 8. 45 am on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, an Army jawan was killed in what the officials had said was unprovoked small arms firing and mortar shelling by the Pakistani troops in Poonch’s Krishna Ghati sector.

A day earlier, two minors were killed and twelve other civilians including women and children were injured after the Pakistani troops pounded Indian forward positions and civilian areas in Poonch’s Dhigwar, Kerni and Shahpur sectors with mortars.

A report — not confirmed by the authorities — had said that a 16-yearold girl identified as Tazeem Akhter, who was among the injured, later died in a hospital.