Soldier hurt in Pak firing dies; toll rises to 11 in 4 days
JAMMU: Pakistan troops violated ceasefire for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday by resorting to heavy shelling along the International border (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC) in three sectors of Jammu and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Meanwhile, an army jawan injured in firing in Poonch succumbed on Saturday, taking the toll in the border firing to 11 since Thursday, police said.
The dead include six civilians, three armymen, and two BSF personnel.
“Pakistan Rangers resumed (shelling) along IB in Kanachak sector of Jammu tonight. They have been mortar shelling and it is being replied back,” a BSF spokesperson said. Pakistan resumed shelling along the LoC in Bhawani, Karali, Said, Numb and Sher Makri areas of Rajouri district this evening, DC, Rajouri, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary said.
In Akhnoor, Pakistani forces resorted to firing along LoC, police officials said, adding troops were carrying out retaliatory firing. Signalman Chandan Kumar Rai, posted at a forward post in Mankote sector of Poonch, was grievously injured when Pakistani army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing around 4.30 pm on Saturday, northern army spokesperson Col NN Joshi said.
He was taken to the military hospital where he succumbed to injuries at night, he said.
Rai, 25, belonged to Nadesar village in Uttar Pradesh’s Chandauli district, and is survived by his father, Satya Prakash Rai.
While a BSF jawan and a teenaged girl were killed on Thursday, four persons — two civilians and a BSF jawan and an Army jawan — were killed and over 40 others, including two BSF personnel, injured in the Pakistani firing on Friday. Three civilians and an Army jawan were killed and 16 others injured in the ceasefire violations on Saturday.
An official said on Sunday that the state government has set up six relief camps to provide shelter to border dwellers. “They are already functional and provided with all basic amenities,” an official spokesperson said.
Minister for public health engineering Sham Lal Choudhary conducted a tour of Suchetgarh and RS Pura sectors to take stock of the damage caused to life, property and livestock due to the cross-border firing.
He visited about a dozen villages and said the departments concerned had been directed to assess the damage and submit detailed reports within the least time for processing of compensation cases.