Indian artillery targets 4 terror camps across LoC
6-10 Pak soldiers, a dozen terrorists killed after ceasefire violations
NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR: The Indian Army on Sunday mounted an artillery attack on at least four terror camps and Pakistani military positions across the Line of Control (LoC) in retaliation to ceasefire violations meant to assist infiltrators, killing at least six soldiers of the neighbouring country and inflicting heavy terrorist casualties, General Bipin Rawat said.
In the Indian firing by 155mm guns — the mainstay of the artillery firepower of the army — 6-10 Pakistani soldiers and about a dozen terrorists were killed in the Neelam Valley opposite the Tangdhar sector along the LoC, people with direct knowledge of the operation said. The artillery used in the Indian response has a range of 24-30km.
The counter-attack by India came after two Indian Army soldiers and a civilian were killed in unprovoked Pakistani firing on Saturday evening at Karnah in J&K’s Kupwara district, according to the army. Three others were also injured in the Pakistani firing that left one house, two cowsheds and a rice godown completely destroyed.
“On the basis of reports that we have been getting, 6-10 Pakistani soldiers have been killed; three terror camps have been destroyed. There have been damages to a fourth camp too. Similar number of terrorists have also been killed. In the retaliatory action, we have caused severe damage to terrorist infrastructure. Terrorist camps opposite Tangdhar sector have been destroyed,” Rawat said.
“Last evening, an attempt was made in Tangdhar to infiltrate terrorists and we retaliated… It was decided that we target terror camps across the LoC. We had the coordinates of these camps,” the army chief added.
The army chief briefed defence minister Rajnath Singh about the Indian response on Sunday. Singh congratulated Gen Rawat and his men for taking resolute action against terrorists while avoiding civilian casualties.
An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Sunday’s response could not be compared to the “surgical strikes” carried out against terror launch pads in 2016. On the intervening night of September 28-29 in 2016, the army carried attacked seven terror launch pads across the LoC in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). The next day, it announced that India had mounted the offensive using Special Forces on the ground, inflicting “significant casualties” on terrorists.
Another official said that the calibrated escalation of area weapons was undertaken by India after the infiltration attempt on Saturday and that the army retains the right to respond in case the Pakistan Army continues to assist terrorist activities across Indian borders.
After the Indian action, Asif Ghafoor, the spokesperson for Pakistan’s armed forces, said that nine Indian soldiers were killed in its firing and two Indian bunkers were destroyed.
SRINAGAR: The firing along the de facto India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir — the Line of Control (LoC) — in Tangdhar sector of Kupwara district on Saturday triggered panic as residents left their homes to take shelter in underground bunkers, residents and police said on Sunday.
A civilian, Mohammad Sidiq, 50, and two army soldiers were killed in the firing that prompted the Indian Army to launch an artillery attack in retaliation on Sunday. Army chief General Bipin Rawat said that India mounted the attack on at least four terror camps and Pakistani military positions across the LoC. He added that the firing from the Pakistani side was meant to assist infiltrators and at least six Pakistani soldiers were killed while heavy terrorist casualties were also inflicted in the artillery attack.
Sidiq was a resident of Gundishot in Tanghdar. Ishfaq Ahmad, a local resident, said that shells from across the LoC fell in Gundishot as well as hit an army post in Tanghdar. “One shell fell near the house of Sidiq and led to his death,’’ said Ahmad as he described the panic in the village.
He added that some residents took shelter in underground bunkers while others huddled on the ground floors of their homes. “There was chaos. Men, women, and children were crying. The shrieks could be heard throughout the night. People thought that they would not survive,” he said.
A police officer, who was not authorised to speak to the media, said that three more civilians were injured in the cross-LoC firing. “Two of them are stable. One of the injured civilians is still in the hospital as he has got some serious injuries,” said the officer.
Another police officer said that Pakistani troops fired shells at five to seven places and caused heavy damage to many residential houses. “Seven to eight houses, including a storehouse of grains, have been damaged,” he said on the condition of anonymity. The shells also hit cattle sheds and left some six cows and 10 goats dead.
Another local resident, who did want to be named, said that the shelling was the worst since 2003 when India and Pakistan agreed on a ceasefire along the 744-km long LoC and the 198-km long international border in Jammu and Kashmir.“When there was a massive earthquake in 2005, many underground bunkers were destroyed and people did not feel the need to reconstruct them as there were not many ceasefire violations in this area. There were minor skirmishes earlier. We demand the reconstruction of underground bunkers in the area.”
Tensions along the LoC have escalated since August 5 when the Centre moved to effectively revoke Constitution’s Article 370 that gave Jammu and Kashmir a special status. The state was also split into two Union territories in August.