Pak kills five Indian soldiers in Poonch, India lodges strong protest

Mangaloretoday/DHNS

Jammu, Aug.6, 2013: Five Indian soldiers have been killed by Pakistan soldiers who entered Indian territory in the Poonch area of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday night; a sixth soldier hid behind a bush and survived the assault. His testimony will be crucial in determining how the others died.

The Indians were on patrol duty along the Line of Control in the Chakandabad area of Poonch, 200 km south of Srinagar, when they were attacked at about 2 am.

 

"The attack was carried out by 20 heavily-armed terrorists in Pak army uniform", Defence Minister AK Antony told Parliament. "India has lodged a strong protest with Pakistan through diplomatic channels."

Sources said New Delhi has summoned Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner a short while ago.

The main opposition party BJP has said the attack must force the government to reconsider plans to resume talks with Pakistan. In the Lok Sabha, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha asked, "The government should clarify - is the Congress with Pakistan or India?"

Pakistan military officials have denied the incident. "We strongly deny India’s allegations," Pakistan Army sources told NDTV.

In January this year, relations between the countries crashed after Pakistani soldiers killed two Indian jawans; one was beheaded. Six soldiers from both countries were killed, with both sides blaming each other for violating the cease-fire.

 "India can’t take this lying down. Killing and infiltration must end, but talks must continue," cautioned Farooq Abdullah, whose National Conference runs the Kashmir government in partnership with the Congress.

 His son, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted: "These incidents don’t help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Pak & call into question the Pak govt’s recent overtures."

Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said recently that India would be "picking up the threads" of peace talks with the new Pakistani government led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.  In September, the prime ministers of India and Pakistan were expected to meet on the sideline of a UN conference in New York.