Border firing ends Kashmir truce
Gun, mortar salvo came days after India, Pakistan pledged to respect terms laid out in 2003 ceasefire
India and Pakistan exchanged fire across the Kashmir border yesterday, officials said, killing two guards and ending a days-old agreement to honour a ceasefire in the disputed region.
Seven civilians were also injured at Aknoor, near the contested territory’s border with Pakistan, in a barrage that claimed the lives of two Indian border officers. India’s Border Security Force said its troops returned fire after Pakistani border rangers in Sialkot fired into Kashmir in the early hours of yesterday.
Pakistan authorities did not immediately comment on India’s allegations or whether any damage was sustained on their side of the border.
The salvo of gun and mortar fire came just four days after Pakistan and India promised to end ceasefire violations in Kashmir. The two sides had pledged to respect the conditions laid out in a 2003 ceasefire “in letter and spirit”.
The latest deaths in the Pakistani firing raised the casualty figure during ceasefire violations along the international border and the Line of Control in the state to 46.
Two personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF), including an officer, were killed yesterday as Pakistani Rangers targeted Indian posts along the international border in Jammu with mortars and firing, a violation which comes nearly a week after the director generals of military operations (DGMOs) of both countries agreed to implement the ceasefire pact of 2003 in “letter and spirit”.
The heavy firing and mortar shelling from across the border in Pragwal area of Akhnoor and nearby Kanachak and Khour sectors also left 10 persons, including a policeman and a woman injured, and forced people to abandon their homes and rush for safer places.
A senior BSF officer said two wounded soldiers were evacuated to medical facilities but succumbed to their injuries.
A police official said nine civilians and a policeman were also injured in the Pakistani shelling and were evacuated to hospital. On May 29, the DGMOs of India and Pakistan agreed to “fully implement” the ceasefire pact of 2003 in “letter and spirit” forthwith to stop border skirmishes in Jammu and Kashmir.
The two military commanders reviewed the prevailing situation along the Line of Control and the international border in Jammu and Kashmir during a conversation over the special hotline.
The latest deaths in the Pakistani firing raised the casualty figure during ceasefire violations along the international border and the Line of Control in the state to 46. The dead include 20 security personnel.
Last month, thousands of people residing along the international border in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts had to flee their homes following intense shelling from Pakistan between May 15 and May 23, which left 12 people dead, including two BSF troopers and an infant, and scores of others injured.
After the DGMOs of the two countries spoke to each other, hope had rekindled among border residents who had started returning to their homes but the latest incidents have triggered fresh a renewed exodus.