ON ALERT: Soldiers take position near the Line of Control in Poonch on Saturday. PTI
Two civilians were killed and several others injured as Pakistani troops continued heavy shelling on forward areas and border hamlets in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday. Reports stated that Pakistani troops used 120 mm and 82 mm mortar shells to pound military posts in Jhanger village along the LoC in Nowshera sector from early Saturday morning.
Lt Col Manish Mehta, defence PRO, said the Indian Army was retaliating strongly and effectively to Pakistani aggression and the firing was continuing when reports last came in. “The Pakistan Army initiated indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatic weapons and 82 mm and 120 mm mortars from 7.15 am,” Mehta said. This is the third incident of ceasefire violation by the Pakistan army since May 10.
Evacuation on
More than 100 civilians have been shifted to safer places, while an evacuation plan has been activated for moving out 2,000 others, officials said. Schools falling within a two-km radius along the LoC remained closed for the third consecutive day on Saturday. “We can’t take a risk, and have closed the schools in the wake of the shelling,” Chief Education Officer Chowdhary Altaf said.
The government has issued an advisory in the border belts, asking people not to venture out of their houses. Similarly, the government has also asked senior doctors to be present in the hospital round-the-clock in case of any eventuality.
Sources said the motive of Pakistani troops could be to push infiltrators under the cover of mortar shelling and firing. “However, the army and the BSF are maintaining high alert and have not allowed Pakistani designs to push militants into this side to succeed,” a source said.
There has been considerable rise in violation of the 2003 ceasefire agreement by Pakistan since the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir on September 29, 2016.