New Delhi:
After a soldier was killed and six injured in cross-border firing from Pakistan last night, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde promised "a befitting reply."
50 frontier posts were targeted in Kashmir last night in violence that the army described as among the worst since a ceasefire agreement was agreed upon a decade ago for the Line of Control (LoC) or de-facto border that runs 740 km.
The Home Minister, who visited the region yesterday, said more soldiers from the Border Security Force are being sent to the International Border. The army guards the de-facto border or Line of Control in Kashmir while the Border Security Force patrols the international border that is not disputed by either country and runs along Gujarat and Punjab.
"The situation along the LoC is certainly one of the most serious witnessed since the ceasefire," said army spokesperson Nitin Narhar Joshi to news agency AFP. "Now it is becoming ever worse with the sanctity of the international border also being severely violated by Pakistan."
The Defence Ministry says it has compiled more than 200 ceasefire violations this year, more than all the other violations since 2003.
The fraying ceasefire was taken up by last month by the Prime Minister when he met last month with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in New York; both sides pledged to restore calm along the LoC.
Mr Sharif is currently in Washington and is set to meet President Barack Obama later Wednesday, after angering India by calling for US involvement to help settle the dispute over Kashmir.
50 frontier posts were targeted in Kashmir last night in violence that the army described as among the worst since a ceasefire agreement was agreed upon a decade ago for the Line of Control (LoC) or de-facto border that runs 740 km.
The Home Minister, who visited the region yesterday, said more soldiers from the Border Security Force are being sent to the International Border. The army guards the de-facto border or Line of Control in Kashmir while the Border Security Force patrols the international border that is not disputed by either country and runs along Gujarat and Punjab.
"The situation along the LoC is certainly one of the most serious witnessed since the ceasefire," said army spokesperson Nitin Narhar Joshi to news agency AFP. "Now it is becoming ever worse with the sanctity of the international border also being severely violated by Pakistan."
The Defence Ministry says it has compiled more than 200 ceasefire violations this year, more than all the other violations since 2003.
The fraying ceasefire was taken up by last month by the Prime Minister when he met last month with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in New York; both sides pledged to restore calm along the LoC.
Mr Sharif is currently in Washington and is set to meet President Barack Obama later Wednesday, after angering India by calling for US involvement to help settle the dispute over Kashmir.
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