3 BSF jawans among 15 injured along IB

Forces kill 2 Pak Rangers in Akhnoor, 3 others injured seriously; villagers asked to move to safer places

JAMMU: Three Border Security Force (BSF) jawans and five civilians were injured as Pakistani shelling spread along the 198-km International Border in the Jammu region through Monday night, prompting the forces to retaliate.

The sporadic exchange of fire, also intense at times, also continued on Tuesday, affecting a large population in the forward-area villages along the border in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts. “Two to three BSF jawans suffered minor injuries at different locations on Monday and Tuesday. They were hit by flying shards of stones and not shrapnels,” said a senior BSF officer.

He said the Pakistan Rangers, who pleaded for a ceasefire on Saturday and Sunday, apparently to buy time, have been targeting forward villages along the border.

“They are using automatic weapons and mortars. We are retaliating to the unprovoked firing in which at least two Rangers

were killed in the Akhnoor sector while three others were injured at other places.

The three seriously injured Rangers have been shifted to a hospital in Lahore,” he said.

The BSF in its retaliatory fire also blasted a Pak observation tower opposite the Arnia sector.

Five injured civilians have been identified as Thoru Ram, 68, and Vipan Choudhary of Raipur Saidan, Sita Devi of Bidipur, Des Raj, 52, of Korotana Khurd in the RS Pura sector and Aman