SRINAGAR: A day after three of its soldiers were killed and the body of one of them was mutilated in Jammu and Kashmir’s Machil sector, the Army launched a massive counter-offensive at Pakistani positions along the LoC and killed three soldiers, including an officer.
“The Army had talked about a strong retribution after yesterday’s killing of soldiers and it is happening today,” a senior Army official in Srinagar told Express on Wednesday. Armymen also used 82 mm and 120 mm mortar shells, sources said. “After the offensive stops, we will be in a better position to say how many of their posts have been destroyed and how many Pakistani soldiers killed,” he added.
The Pakistan army confirmed the death of its soldiers and claimed it had killed seven Indian jawans in retaliatory firing. It also claimed that Indian firing had killed four civilians in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and requested talks at the level of the Director General of Military Operations.
“Three Pakistani armymen were killed at the LoC while responding to unprovoked Indian firing,” read a statement by the Inter Services Public Relations, the media arm of the Pakistan army.
According to sources, Pakistani troops had breached the border ceasefire in the Gurez sector and opened fire on Army posts and civilian-occupied areas.