Pakistanis fire on Indian posts in Poonch district of Kashmir

Jammu/Islamabad, October 3 (NIA): Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire four times on Monday by targeting forward posts and civilian areas along the LoC in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir state with 120 mm mortar bombs and automatic weapons, drawing retaliation from Indian troops, PTI reported.

There were reports of two civilians suffering minor injuries in the firing and shelling.

Pakistan shelled posts along the LoC at the Shahpur, Krishnagati, Mandi and Sabzian sectors of Poonch district.

“Pakistan troops resorted to unprovoked firing in Mandi and Sabzian sectors of Poonch district from 1345 hours today”, Defence Spokesman Col Manish Mehta said.

“They fired 120 mm, 80 mm mortar bombs, automatic weapons and small arms,” he said, adding the exchanges are going on.

Earlier Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire in Poonch using small arms, automatic and mortar bombs (in Shahpur) in Poonch, he said.

“It has appropriately been responded to, we have given them a befitting reply. The ceasefire violation is still on”, he said.

A police officer said the firing started at around 1045 hours and is going on. Pakistani troops had earlier briefly opened fire in Krishnagati sector of Poonch district around 0100 hours, officials said.

The Deputy Commissioner of Poonch, Mohmmad Harun Malik, said that as per reports from the border area, two civilian has suffered minor injuries. There have been four ceasefire violations today and 10 since the surgical strikes carried out by Indian Army on the intervening night of September 28 and 29.

Proving Indians Wrong

Meanwhile, the Pakistan army public relations department, headed by Lt.Gen.Asim Bajwa,  took a party of 40 local and foreign journalists from 20 media outlets to the area near the Line of Control (LoC), where the Indian “surgical strike” against militant camps supposedly took place, namely,  Bagsar in the Bhimbher sector and Mandol in the Hot Spring sector.

They were also shown the places where Pakistan had lost two of its soldiers early on Thursday morning due to Indian shelling, Dawn reports.

The journalists also interacted with locals, who denied having any knowledge of surgical strikes or any other suspicious activity on the night between Wednesday and Thursday.

Public relations chief Lt.Gen.Asim Bajwa told reporters that no “signature of any surgical strike” could be found which meant that there was no reality in the Indian claims.

Bajwa challenged India to be transparent and open about its claim. Pakistan Army, he recalled, was cooperating with a United Nations probe into ceasefire violations that occurred on Sept 28-29 along the 250 km LoC, and had brought media to investigating the Indian claims.

“Why are they not allowing their own people to scrutinize the claims?” he wondered.

India had earlier restricted journalists from publishing stories on military issues without approval of relevant corps headquarters after the Indian media exposed as untrue Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Lt Gen Ranbir Singh’s claim of finding Pakistani markings on weapons recovered from Uri military camp attackers.

Gen Bajwa posed several questions to the Indian military about its “surgical strikes” claim and advised the Indian DGMO to be “sure-footed” while making statements on sensitive matters.

Some of the questions he asked were: “Where are bodies of people killed in the claimed surgical strikes? Where did the Indians cause damage? How come the troops came and went back unchallenged all in a span of five hours in this difficult terrain?”

India had claimed that “surgical strikes” by its troops had caused “significant damage to terrorists and those who were trying to support them”.

India had claimed that “surgical strikes” by its troops had caused “significant damage to terrorists and those who were trying to support them”.

The military spokesman insisted that there was no “physical violation” of the LoC and there was only an exchange of fire on that day.

Pakistan, he said, did not allow infiltration across the LoC and export of terrorism as a matter of policy. He regretted that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was misleading his people by misinterpreting the ceasefire violation as a surgical strike to cover up problems in held Kashmir.

Gen Bajwa worried that escalation on its eastern border with India could affect Pakistan’s commitment to the fight against terror, in which 208,000 troops are engaged and operations are in the concluding phase.

Losing focus on counterterrorism operations, he cautioned, would not serve the cause of peace and security in the region.

Mystery Of The Missing Indian Soldier

India says that its Rashtriya Rifles trooper Chandu Babulal Chohan had inadvertently crossed the LoC and was detained by Pakistan Army.

Pakistani military’s position has over the past few days evolved from outright denial about his arrest to searching for his whereabouts. And now Gen Bajwa says the procedures for verification and authentication are being carried out — a process normally undertaken after an inadvertent crosser is found.

The military spokesman still stopped short of categorically accepting that Chohan was being held here.

Gen. chirag Haider, Commander of the 23 Division which guards the LoC said that the physical violation of the heavily militarized LoC is impossible as even the slightest movement is noticed there.

“Therefore, it is unlikely that Indian soldiers came into Azad Kashmir and went back,” he contended.

Local Testimonies

Mirza Abdul Waheed, a local bodies’ Councilor told Dawn in Bagsar that nothing happened on that night except for an exchange of fire by both sides.

Rafi Shahzad, another Bagsar resident, said the Indian claim was a pack of lies. Mohammad Liaquat had similar view of events of the Sept 28/29 night.

In Mandol, some 2km from an Indian post on the LoC, Nauman Kabir, who works at a local bank, said he was surprised at the manner in which Indian leaders were trying to fool their people.