India kills three across LOC, slams Pakistan over Jadhav

FLASHPOINTS Tactical strike a response to killing of four Indian soldiers

Commandos of the Indian Army crossed the Line of Control (LOC) on Monday night in the Poonch sector and killed three Pakistani soldiers in a “tactical retaliatory strike”, government sources said on Tuesday amid heightened military and diplomatic tension between the two neighbours.

The attack was carried out two days after four Indian Army personnel, including a Major, were allegedly killed by Pakistan in an ambush in Keri-rajouri sector, and a day before the Indian foreign ministry hit out at Pakistan for the treatment meted out to the wife and mother of death-row convict Kulbhushan Jadhav in Islamabad.

The sources said the military action could not be termed a “surgical strike”— like the one conducted last September, when Indian army commandos went across the LOC to target alleged terror launch pads operated by Pakistan. Monday’s raid, conducted 250m across the LOC by five to seven soldiers of an infantry battalion’ s Ghatak commandos, was planned at the local level. “The raid was to send a message that the Army will retaliate swiftly and strongly to rogue actions,” a source said.

The Indian Army declined to comment, but the Pakistan Army on Tuesday confirmed the death of three soldiers at Rukh Chakri sector in Rawlakot, describing it as “unprovoked heavy cross-border shelling by Indian forces”.

The Pakistan foreign office, however, “categorically rejected” reports that Indian forces had crossed the LOC to attack Pakistani troops, calling them a “figment of the imagination”. This exchange of attacks took place in the backdrop of a major diplomatic row between the two countries over former Indian Navy officer Jadhav, who has been sentenced to death by Pakistan for alleged espionage.

Jadhav was allowed on Monday to meet his mother Avanti and wife Chentankul through a glass partition in Islamabad – which Pakistan said was evidence of its humanitarianism and generosity.