Army says it pounded Pak posts in ‘punitive’ strikes
NEWDELHI: The Indian Army said on Tuesday it has attacked and destroyed Pakistani posts along their de-facto border as part of counter-insurgency operations to stop militants from crossing into India.
In a rare move, the army also released what it said was a video of the military action that showed heavy artillery blasting temporary bunkers and shelters on a tree-covered mountain. The video was shot in Jammu’s Naushera sector on May 9, army officials told HT, a little over a week after the beheading of two Indian soldiers by a Pakistan army team.
Pakistan military spokesman Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor called the Indian claim “false” and issued a video which he claimed showed its army shelling Indian positions after an “unprovoked ceasefire violation” on May 13.
Indian army chief spokesman Major General Ashok Narula told journalists the aim of the military action was to “bring down the number of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir so that youths are not adversely influenced by terrorists from across.”
“Punitive fire assaults across the Line of Control are being undertaken by the Indian army,” said Major Narula, who heads the army’s public information wing. He did not give dates.
The assault is also the latest escalation in tensions along the LoC, the volatile de-facto border.