Woman killed, one soldier wounded in shelling along LoC

JAMMU:A 27-year-old woman was killed and a soldier injured on Thursday after Pakistan army resorted to heavy shelling along the Line of Control (Loc) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch and Rajouri districts.

Pakistani troops violated ceasefire four times in the day by shelling civilian areas and forward posts, drawing “strong and effective” retaliation from Indian forces.

JAMMU: A 27-year-old woman was killed and an off-duty soldier was wounded in shelling from across the de facto India-Pakistan border — the Line of Control (LoC) — in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch and Rajouri districts on Thursday.

Poonch deputy commissioner, Rahul Yadav, identified the woman as Amina Akhter, who was herding cattle in Chajala village when a mortar exploded and killed her on the spot.

Defence spokesman, Lt Col Devender Anand, said India retaliated “strongly and effectively” to the Pakistani shelling and small arms firing along the LoC for the seventh day.

The fresh exchange of firing and shelling comes amid tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad since Pakistan-based Jaish-eMohammed (JeM) claimed responsibility for the attack that left 40 security personnel dead in Kashmir’s Pulwama on February 14.

Pakistan on Wednesday responded to an Indian airstrike on a JeM camp a day earlier as the two sides claimed to have downed each other’s jets and Islamabad captured an India pilot, who is scheduled to be handed back to New Delhi on Friday.

Yadav said Zakir Hussain, 35, of the Army’s 3rd Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, who is posted in Kupwara and is currently on leave, was injured in the shelling at Balnoi Sagra in Poonch district. He added Hussain was cutting wood near his house when he was wounded.

Yadav said Hussain was undergoing treatment at Rajouri’s district hospital.

Lt Col Anand said the Pakistani Army resorted to shelling in Sunderbani, Mankote, Khari Karmara and Degwar sectors in Rajouri and Poonch districts at 6 am and 4 pm.

Separately, authorities on Thursday ordered the closure of schools within a range five-km from the International Border with Pakistan and the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.

India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire along the LoC in 2003. The ceasefire has been repeatedly violated over the last few years.

DEFENCE OFFICIALS, SAY AN ARMYMAN, WHO WAS ON LEAVE, WAS ALSO INJURED IN SHELLING IN J&K’S POONCH DISTRICT