Two children killed, 12 villagers wounded as Pakistan targets J-K’s Poonch

Two children were killed and 12 villagers injured, three of them critically, as Pakistan targeted Indian villages and posts with heavy gunfire and mortar shells along the line of control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Monday.

Indian troops retaliated to the latest ceasefire violation that started at around 7.15am, a defence spokersperson said. The exchange was still on.

“There is heavy cross-border mortar shelling in Poonch, Qasba, Kerni, Shahpur, Gulpur and Banvat Top,” an official at the police control room in Poonch told Hindustan Times.

He identified the dead as nine-year-old Israr Ahmed from Qasba Kerni and 15-year-old Yasmin Akhtar, a resident of Bagial Dara. Three of the injured, including a young girl, were critical, the police official said.

Civilian injured in Pakistan shelling being treated at Poonch district hospital on Monday October 2, 2017. (HT Photo)

There has been a spike in ceasefire violations this year, forcing hundreds of people living along the border to flee their villages and take shelter at camps set up by the government.

The two countries had in November 2003 agreed to a hold their fire along the de facto border but violations have intensified since 2016 as relations have nosedived.

Till August 1, there were 285 such violations by Pakistan compared to last year’s 228, Indian Army data shows.