Pakistani troops heavily shelled border hamlets and army posts along the LoC with mortar bombs for the eleventh consecutive day in two sectors of Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, which witnessed two fresh ceasefire violations from across the border on Wednesday.
The firing drew strong retaliation from the Indian army.
“Pakistan violated the ceasefire twice today by resorting to heavy shelling of 120 mm, 81 mm and 60 mm mortar bombs on civilian areas and army posts along the LoC in Hamirpur and Mendhar sectors of Poonch district, which started around 1330 hours,” a defence spokesman said.
“Our troops have been responding effectively and appropriately”, the spokesperson said, adding that exchanges were on when the reports last came in from the area.
“The Indian army deployed in these forward post areas are giving a befitting reply and firing on forward areas of Pakistan, reportedly causing damage to them,” he said, adding, no damage and casualty on our side has been reported so far.
There have been 50 violations of the border ceasefire agreement of 2003 by Pakistan in August and over 245 ceasefire violations during the year so far.
The spokesman said the Pakistan rangers had also resorted to firing on forward posts along the LoC in Balakote, Bhimbergali (BG) and Poonch sectors last night.
Firing from Pakistani side stopped around 2200 hours in Balakote sector, whereas it ended around 2330 hours in Poonch sector. In the BG sector, Pakistan carried out heavy mortar shelling and fired machine gun for almost nine hours, he said.
Expanding the arch of its targets, Pakistani troops had pounded civilian areas and military positions along the IB in R S Pura and Arnia sectors of Jammu district on intervening night of August 17-18, injuring a villager.
Pakistan had yesterday violated the ceasefire five times by targeting civilian hamlets with 120 mm, 82 mm and 60 mm mortar bombs along the IB and LoC in Poonch, Balakote, R S Pura, Hamirpur and Arnia sectors of Poonch and Jammu districts.
PTI
