File Photo: An Indian Army soldier on guard along the border with Pakistan. (Reuters Photo)
Pakistan again violated the ceasefire by resorting to unprovoked firing overnight on 14 Indian posts along the international border in Samba sector. The Border Security Forces or BSF strongly retaliated to the Pakistani firing, sources said. Two civilians have also been injured in the attacks.
Pakistani soldiers targeted nine Indian military outposts and villages in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba since Saturday, firing long range mortars and violating the ceasefire between the two countries.
One civilian was killed and six others injured in the attacks since Friday to which Indian forces also retaliated.
Panicked villagers in many border hamlets said they are now planning to move away from the border areas to safer places. "People living in the border area are very scared and want to migrate to safer places," Charan Singh, a villager, told NDTV.
Another villager Ramesh Bharti said that Pakistan was targeting border towns deliberately. "Pakistan always does this during the festive and harvesting season to create panic and instability," he said.
The latest round of border firings was triggered after Pakistan fired at a Border Security Force party and some labourers repairing the border fence on Friday evening.
India says Pakistan must desist from such violations. "We talk about peace, but Pakistan resorts to terrorism, peace and terrorism can't go together," said Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
Speaking in Jammu yesterday, Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Nirmal Singh said, "Pakistan is time and again trying to push in terrorists and ultimately they cut the fencing to get-in. That fencing was being repaired when the Pakistani rangers opened fire and one person has died in the firing."
The ceasefire violations, which had become a routine, had stopped after the Director General level talks between Border Security Force and Pakistan Rangers on September 12.