Pakistan on Saturday resorted to heavy firing and mortar shelling on forward posts and civilian areas along Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir that prompted the immediate reaction from the Indian troops who retaliated with the heavy firing.

“Pakistani Army initiated indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics, 82 mm and 120 mm mortars from 2300 hours on Friday along the LoC in Poonch sector”, a defence spokesperson said.

He said the Indian Army is retaliating strongly and effectively. The firing remained  on for a long time, he added.

On Thursday, a civilian was killed and four others including a BSF jawan, were injured when ceasefire violation was reported in Rajouri and Poonch district. In retaliatory fire, five Pakistani soldiers were reported to have killed.

The ceasefire violations coincides with chief of army staff Bipin Rawat’s visit to Kashmir. He along with top brass of Indian Army and corps commanders of Jammu and Kashmir, held a meeting in Srinagar on Friday to review the situation.

At least one incident of ceasefire violation by Pakistan took place daily along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir in 2015 and 2016 in which 23 security personnel lost their lives. As many as 1,142 militant  incidents were reported in the state between 2012 and 2016 in which 236 security personnel and 90 civilians were killed. The truce along the LoC 449 times in 2016 as compared to 405 violations in 2015.

Earlier Indian and Pakistani troops traded heavy fire on Thursday along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir that left a Border Roads Organization (BRO) employee dead while several others including some civilians were injured.

From the Indian side a Border Roads Organisation (BRO) official was killed and four persons, including a Border Security Force (BSF) trooper, were injured as the armies of India and Pakistan exchanged heavy fire and shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) in Mendhar area of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir. The BRO officials, part of General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF), were working on Dabraj road of Mendhar when a mortar shell landed near them.

Earlier the Army claimed to have destroyed a Pakistan Army post in the Naushera sector in Jammu and Kashmir by carrying out fire assaults along the  Line of Control (LoC) as part of its “anti-terror operations”, further escalating the tensions between the two countries. A senior army official said that the assault was carried out recently as Pakistani posts were supporting infiltration into Indian side. The claim came two days after the Indian Army killed four militants in an encounter along the LoC in Kashmir’s Naugam sector. The  Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has noted in its report that stepped up militant activity along the line of control (LoC) and the cross border exchange of firing between Indian and Pakistani troops, has deteriorated the security scenario and the activities of militants and separatists remains a challeng

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