Pakistan violates ceasefire in Rajouri LoC, India retaliates

JAMMU: Indian and Pakistani troops traded heavy fire on Sunday along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, a defence official said. "Pakistan army began indiscriminate firing and shelling on our positions on the LoC in Naushera sector from 6.30 a.m.," Defence Ministry spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta told IANS. "They first initiated small arms and automatic gunfire, but later used mortars." "The firing is ongoing and our forces are effectively retaliating," Mehta added. Earlier on Thursday, in the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces sneaked 600 metres across the LoC into the Poonch sector and killed two Indian jawans and lost one Border Action Team (BAT) member in retaliatory action. The BAT comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan army and terrorists. It had carried out the attack at around 2 PM on an Army patrol party in the Gulpur belt of Poonch on 22 June under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops. In the firefight, two Indian soldiers - 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur - were martyred. The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) members were armed with 'special daggers' and 'headband cameras' to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol. Earlier, on June 16, Pakistan violated the ceasefire by firing on forward posts along the LoC in Naushera sector of Rajouri district of J&K, killing an Indian Army jawan. There have been 19 ceasefire violations along the LoC and the international border in Jammu region in June in which one civilian was killed and seven others injured.