Sialkkot - Unprovoked firing by Indian Border Security Force at Line of Control in Bajwat sector on Sunday morning prompted fear and panic in villages along Sialkot working boundary where people were celebrating the third day of Eid.
Officials said it was the third cross-border incursion from Indian side last week.
According to a senior Rangers official, firing from Indian troops continued intermittently for three hours, till 10:00am, heightening fear in villages where people were busy in celebrating Eidul Fitr. However, Indian guns went silent when Chenab Rangers retaliated.
“Indian troops resorted to unprovoked firing on Rangers posts near Pukhlian, Head Marala area, in Sialkot sector,” the official said, “BSF also tried to target Ejaz Shaheed and Burji checkposts in Bajwat sector using heavy artillery. The official however confirmed that no injury or casualty was reported.
Pakistan accused Indian forces of firing on its border posts in disputed Kashmir and in neighbouring Punjab, where it sparked an “intermittent exchange of fire” between the two sides.
The fighting is the latest in a spate of recent cross-border skirmishes between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. But the first of Sunday’s incidents took place near the border close to Sialkot.
“Intermittent exchange of fire continues. No loss reported so far,” a military official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The official said that after the exchange of fire in Punjab, the Indian troops also fired at the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region. “Indian troops also resorted to unprovoked firing at LOC in Nakial sector near Kotli,” he said.
Pakistani military official says border post shot at, provoking exchange of fire amid heightened tensions.
“Indian Border Security Force resorted to unprovoked firing on Pakistani rangers posts near Pukhlian, Head Marala area, in Sialkot sector,” a senior military official told the AFP news agency. “Intermittent exchange of fire continues. No loss reported so far.”
Pakistan also on Sunday lodged a protest with India over the stopping of the Lahore-bound bus near Chehertha, 20 km from the Attari border by Youth Congress activists.
In a faxed message, both to Indian High Commission in Islamabad and to Ministry of External Affairs, the Pakistan Foreign Office has expressed concern over the incident.
“Concerns on organised demonstrations against Pak High Commission and mobbing of Pakistan-bound bus conveyed to Indian authorities,” the Pakistan High Commission tweeted.
It added that Pakistan was also concerned over reports carried by Indian media about “communal violence on Eid in Jammu and incarceration of Hurriyat leaders”.
Youth Congress activists stopped the cross-border bus in protest against the killings of five Indian soldiers along the Loc in Occupied Kashmir.
Meanwhile, Indian authorities imposed curfews in seven towns in the Indian-held Kashmir on Sunday as sporadic clashes between Hindus and Muslims continued for a third day.
Indian police said the death toll in the violence that erupted during Eid celebrations rose to three, with authorities recovering a body from the Jammu region on Saturday night.
Shantmanu, a civil administrator who uses one name, said Sunday that there were attempts by activists of various political parties overnight to attack homes and businesses in the Jammu region.
Authorities put the seven towns under an indefinite curfew on Sunday.
Kishtwar, the town where Friday’s clashes took place, has been under a strict curfew since the violence there killed two people and injured 24. No fresh violence was reported from the town over the weekend.
Indian troops drove through streets on Sunday and enforced curfews in parts of Jammu, Rajouri, Reasi, Udhampur, Kathua, Samba and Baderwah towns, Shantmanu said.
“Curfews have been imposed in various places to control the situation,” said Jammu-Kashmir state director-general of police Ashok Prasad.
Meanwhile, authorities denied Arun Jaitley, a top BJP leader, permission to visit the troubled Kishtwar area.