A soldier of the Indian Army was injured in a sniper attack along the Line of Control (LoC) in Keri Battal area of Jammu district’s Akhnoor sector on Friday evening.
People familiar with the development said the sniper attack was carried out at around 8:30 pm on Friday.
“Today at around 1830 hrs (6.30 pm), Pakistani troops of 10 POK carried out a sniper attack on an Indian post hitting a soldier on his shoulder. The soldier has been shifted to a garrison hospital in Akhnoor,” said the above-mentioned people.
“The sniper fire came from woods in Pakistani territory on other side of the LoC,” they added.
The army has yet to issue a statement on the incident.
The incident comes two days after Captain Karamjit Singh Bakshi of Jharkhand’s Ranchi and Naik Mukesh Singh Manhas of Utterbehani in Jammu’s Samba were killed and another soldier injured after an improvised explosive device (IED), suspected to have been planted by Pakistani terrorists, went off along the Line of Control (LoC) in the same Battal area of Akhnoor sector.
On Wednesday, reportes claimed that India inflicted heavy losses to Pakistan in retaliatory fire after Pakistani Army opened several rounds of fire on Indian positions in Poonch sector. The Indian Army, however, later denied reports of exchange of fire of heavy-calibre weapons.
“The ceasefire on Line of Control is intact and continues to be observed as per the understanding between both the armies (of India and Pakistan). Tension due to some stray incidents of cross LoC firing and a suspected IED blast on one of our ptls on the LoC is being dealt with through the established mechanism. No exchange of fire of heavy-calibre weapons has taken place. Minor incidents are not unprecedented along the Line of Control. Concerns have been raised to the Pakistan Army at the appropriate level. The situation remains stable and being closely monitored. Indian Army maintains high state of alertness and is dominating the Line of Control,” Indian Army said in a statement.
Uneasy calm along LoC
Amid an uneasy calm along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district, army, on Thursday, had recovered some explosives and allied material in Tarkundi area.
The recoveries included an anti-tank mine, four activated anti personnel mines, splinter material, a shovel, rope and allied material.
It is learnt that intelligence agencies have alerted the security forces about presence of nearly 100 terrorists in launch pads across the LoC. Pakistan has moved these terrorists into various launch pads close to the LoC so as to push them into Indian territory for carrying out terror attacks, people in the know of the matter said.
Pakistani terrorists are known to regularly plant IEDs along the LoC and the international border with an aim to inflict casualties on the Indian Army and Border Security Force (BSF).
On Monday, a soldier was hit by a bullet from across the border while manning a forward post in the Kalal area of the Nowshera sector in Rajouri district while an Army patrol came under terrorist fire from a forest across the LoC in Rajouri’s Keri sector on February 8.
During the intervening night of February 4 and 5, a landmine explosion reportedly resulted in some casualties to terrorists attempting to infiltrate into the Indian side from across the LoC in the Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district.
