Six injured in Pak shelling in Poonch

JAMMU: Six persons, including a 12-year-old boy, were injured as Pakistan violated the ceasefire for the second consecutive day by targeting forward posts and villages with mortar shelling and small-arms firing in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Sunday, an official said.

While four of the injured — three women and the boy — were rushed to a hospital, efforts were on to shift the other two, district development commissioner of Poonch Rahul Yadav told PTI.

A defence spokesperson said the firing and shelling from across the border in the Balakote sector along the Line of Control (LOC) started at about 3.15 pm.

The Indian Army retaliated strongly and a heavy exchange of fire was going on when the last reports were received, he added.

“Three women and a boy have received splinter injuries in the Pakistani shelling on their villages. They were evacuated and taken to a hospital and their condition is stated to be stable,” Yadav said.

The defence spokesperson said details of the casualties suffered by the Pakistan Army in the retaliatory action were not known immediately.

Pakistani officials, however, said that a woman and a boy were killed due to Indian mortar shelling in a border village in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) region.

Raja Tariq, a local administrator in Nakyal sector, said Indian mortars “fired unprovoked” Sunday and hit a home in Drary village, killing 60-year-old widow Salamat Bibi and wounding a boy who later died in a hospital. Another woman was also wounded, he said.