SRINAGAR: Two civilians, a BSF trooper and an army jawan were killed and 24 others, including two border guards, injured in heavy firing and mortar shelling by Pakistani troops across the International Border and Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.
In New Delhi, Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs today and given a strong warning over the ceasefire violations and the killing of innocents.
A BSF official said Pakistani troops breached the border ceasefire and fired on at least 40 border outposts and civilian areas along the IB in RS Pura and Arnia sectors in Jammu, Ramgarh and Ghagwal sectors in Samba and Rajbagh sector in Kathua district. The firing and shelling by Pakistani troops using 52 mm and 82 mm mortar shells started around 6.45 am and continued intermittently during the day, and Indian border guards manning the border outposts returned fire with similar calibre weapons, he said.
BSF head constable Jagpal Singh, who was manning Chillyari Post in Chamba district, sustained serious injuries, and succumbed in a nearby hospital. Singh, 49, from Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, is survived by a daughter and a son. Two other BSF men injured in Ramgarh sector have been hospitalised.
A senior Indian security official in New Delhi said that such blatant targeting of civilians would not go unpunished, and India would respond at a time and place of its own choosing.
According to a ministry of external affairs press release in New Delhi, Deputy High Commissioner of
Pakistan Syed Haider Shah was summoned to South Block today.
“He was conveyed Government’s grave concerns at the continued ceasefire violations and deliberate targeting of innocent civilians by Pakistan forces. More than 100 such violations have been carried out by Pakistan forces on the Line of Control and the International Border so far during 2018. Ministry of External Affairs has registered its strong protest at the loss of three innocent civilian lives besides injuries to nine other civilians in ceasefire violations by Pakistan forces on 18 and 19 January 2019 in Hiranagar, Samba, Ramgarh, R S Pura and Arnia sectors,” the release said.
“It was conveyed to Pakistan that targeting of civilians was against all humanitarian norms and practices. Pakistan was again called upon to adhere to the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding for maintaining peace”,it said.