Post Shinde visit, Pak shells IB areas in Jammu

mangaloretoday.com

Jammu, Oct 22, 2013, (PTI): A villager shows mortar shells, that locals say are being fired from the Pakistan side of the international border, at a village in Samba sector, about 75 km (47 miles) from Jammu October 21, 2013. The firing and shelling along India’s international border with Pakistan continues, local media reported on Monday.

Pakistani troops tonight resorted to mortar shelling at several Indian posts and civilian areas along International Border (IB) in Jammu district in a fresh ceasefire violation that came just hours after Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s review of the tense border situation.

 

In the second ceasefire violation of the day, officials said Pakistan rangers opened fresh fire at 7.40 PM and pounded several Indian posts and civilian areas with mortar shells in two forward belts of Arnia sub-sector triggering fresh panic among the residents.BSF troops on the border retaliated strongly and exchanges are going on in Pinid and Narayanpur forward belts when reports last came, they said.

During the day, the Pakistani troops shelled several Indian posts along the Line of Control(Loc) in Hamirpur and Bhimber Gali sub-sectors of Poonch district, a defence spokesman said.

They resorted to firing and shelling from 1035 hours to 1115 hours, he said, adding Indian troops at the border retaliated resulting in exchanges.

Pakistan had also opened fire on two forward posts along the International Border (IB) in R S Pura sub-sector of Jammu district late last night, forcing BSF troops to retaliate.There was no casualty or injury to anyone on the Indian side in the latest firing exchanges, officials said.

Firing and shelling along the IB and LoC has claimed the life of one army jawan and injured 11 others since October 14.  Around 150 ceasefire violations have been reported in 2013, the highest in the past 8 years.

During his one-day visit, Shinde visited some border belts and made an aerial survey along IB from Akhnoor belt (Jammu district) to Pahadpur (Kathua district) to assess the situation arising out of a spike in  ceasefire violations triggered by firing and shelling daily by Pakistan in Jammu frontier for the past one week.