Even as defence minister A.K. Antony has warned Islamabad that “our restraint should not be taken for granted,” the facing armies have once again exchanged fire at a few places along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir. The latest skirmish, the Army said, was triggered by yet another violation of November 2003 ceasefire by Pakistani troops in Poonch district.
Reports said five Pakistani forward posts were destroyed or suffered extensive damage in “strong retaliation” from the Indian troops. There is no word on this from Islamabad as yet but it has, once, again, denied its troops initiated the firings and, in its counter-charge, accused India of targeting its border posts frequently without any provocation from their side.
Defence spokesperson in Jammu said that the Pakistani troops in their 19th violation of the ceasefire in past nine days opened heavy mortar, RPG and automatic weapons (LMG, MMG, HMG and Pika guns) fire at the Indian posts in Hamirpur and Balakote areas of Poonch on Monday. “This time, they also pounded civilian areas of Mankote and Mendhar creating panic among the residents,” the spokesperson S.N. Acharya said. He added, “Our troops retaliated strongly, resulting in the exchanges which continued intermittently during the night and on Monday morning.”
On Sunday night, the two armies exchanged fire also along the stretch of the de facto border in Kargil, a report said. The firing in Kargil area continued for half an hour but no loss of life or damage was reported on either side.
On Sunday, a couple of 82 mm mortars fired by the Pakistani troops had landed in Dharana and Malikpur areas, just 200 meters short of Mendhar town of Poonch district, police said.
Several families have either abandoned their homes falling in close proximity with the LoC and relocated to safer places or the authorities have evacuated them to avoid civilians casualties in the firing incidents.
Officials said that the frequent ceasefire violations and exchanges of fire between the two sides have posed a serious threat to the cross-border trade and travel through Chakan da Bagh-Rawlakote corridor along the LoC in Poonch.