Infiltrator killed, 3 jawans hurt on LoC

A suspected Pakistani intruder was shot dead and three Indian Army jawans were injured, one of them critically, in a clash during a major infiltration bid which was eventually foiled along the LoC late on Sunday night.

The Pakistani troops, said a defence spokesperson in Jammu on Monday, resorted to heavy firing towards Indian forward posts, apparently to provide cover to the infiltrating militants. The corpse of the intruder was found lying on the ground close to the border fence during a search and sanitisation operation on Monday, the spokesman said.

He added that a couple of other intruders may have been injured in the Indian action during which three to four heavily armed men were forced to flee back into PoK. The clash, he said, took place in Khari Karmara sector of the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district. The officials said that clash was followed by a fierce gunfight between the Indian troops and the members of a Pakistan Border Action Team ( BAT) in which three Army jawans were injured. The officials identified the jawans as Sepoys Abhishek Pise, Shiva Ji Bhosare and Ashish Singh. Bhosare is reported to have suffered a head injury. However, the officials said that he and the other two injured soldiers are “stable”.

They also said that this was the second such infiltration attempt made along the LoC in Poonch district in past four days. In an earlier attempt reported from Mendhar sector, the officials said two to three militants may have been killed as that group too was forced to flee back into PoK.

Since January 18, as many as 11 Army and Border Security Force ( BSF) personnel and nine civilians have been killed and more than 70 people injured in the firing and mortar shelling by Pakistani troops and border guards ( Pakistan Rangers) along the LoC and International Border ( IB) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri, Poonch, Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts. The Pakistanis have reported the death of at least 16 civilians in the Indian firing on their side of the borders, so far this year.

Meanwhile, a mentally challenged man was shot dead by the sentry at an Air Force Station in Budgam district of Kashmir Valley on Sunday night when he allegedly ignored the warning and breached the security demarcation. He has been identified as 60year- old Syed Habibullah, a resident of Soibugh village of Budgam.

The area witnessed a spontaneous shutdown on Monday to mourn and protest the killing.

The family sources said that he had left home on Sunday afternoon. The police here said that the man crossed the security fence and came close to the station perimeter wall.