A woman and her two minor children , one of them nine months old, were killed while her husband was critically injured after a Pakistani mortar shell hit their house along the Line of Control in Jhullas area of Poonch district late Friday night.

Shelling by Pakistani forces intensified around 10:30 pm, shortly after Indian Air Force pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was repatriated through the Wagah border at 9:15 pm following two days of captivity after his MiG 21 was shot down.

SSP Poonch, Ramesh Angral said that Pakistan army resorted to heavy shelling Friday night in Flore area of village Jhullas.

A shell exploded in a house that killed 26-year-old Rubina Kouser, her two children Shabnam who was 9 months old and Faizan who was five years and critically injured her husband Mohammed Younis (32), Angral said.

On Thursday, 27-year-old Amina Akhter was killed and soldier Zakir Hussain was in injured in Pakistani shelling in Poonch.

Tension has risen along the LoC and the border since the February 14 suicide bombing by a Jiash-e-Mohammad terrorist on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama that killed 40 troopers and prompted India to launch a pre-emptive air strike against the JeM on Tuesday.

Authorities on Thursday had 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.

First Published: Mar 02, 2019 10:30 IST